Egypt does not get lion share of Nile Water: irrigation minister refuting Ethiopian claims

CAIRO – 28 March 2021: Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel Aty stated in a TV interview Saturday that Egypt does not acquire the lion share of Nile River water as propagated by Ethiopia.

The minister explained that 900 cubic meters of rainwater fall on the Nile Basin per annum on average, 2-3 million feddans (one feddan is equal to 4,200 square meters) are cultivated in Ethiopia consuming huge amounts of water, and 100 million cattle consume 84 million cubic meters of water in the fellow African state.

Abdel Aty added that Ethiopia is also benefiting from water held in a number of its dams such as Tekeze Dam whose capacity is 10 billion cubic meters, and other reservoirs on the Nile River having a total capacity of 150 billion cubic meters.

The Egyptian minister further noted that Ethiopia has the basins of Omo River, Awash River, Jubba River, Shabelle River as well as 40 billion cubic meters of underground water.

Speaking of lakes, Lake Victoria (source of the Nile) has 3,050 billion cubic meters, Lake Albert has 122 billion cubic meters, Lake Tana has 55 billion cubic meters, and Lake Kioja has eight billion cubic meters.  

Egypt receives 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile Water per annum, which made the minister question how come the country is getting the lion share given the aforementioned facts.