African "Nile for Peace" Initiative calls for postponing 2nd filling of GERD

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Egypt Today staff

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Mon, 14 Jun 2021 - 10:45 GMT

BY

Egypt Today staff

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 - 10:45 GMT

FILE PHOTO: The Blue Nile flows into Ethiopia's Great Renaissance Dam in Guba Woreda- Reuters

FILE PHOTO: The Blue Nile flows into Ethiopia's Great Renaissance Dam in Guba Woreda- Reuters

CAIRO - 14 June 2020: Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights, a founding member of the African "Nile for Peace" Initiative, has emphasized the need to stop the second filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) until the relevant parties could reach a binding agreement on this score.

The foundation's call came on Sunday at press conference held by Maat in the presence of a number of African NGOs and a host of water, peace and security experts in Africa.

It also called for concluding an agreement to protect the water rights of future generations and compensating Ethiopia for any damages incurred due to the cancellation of this filling.

Ayman Oqail, president of Maat Foundation, said the GERD issue is very important since it does not only affect the peoples of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, but also the African continent entirely.

He pointed out that the founding members of the initiative have decided to issue a document of principles to prevent any rivers-related future disputes in Africa, adding that experts and organizations of 58 countries have signed the document so far.

Ethiopia conducted its first filling in July 2020 with 5 billion cubic meters. The total capacity of the reservoir is 74 billion cubic meters to be filled over several years [the years number is still one of the disagreements between the three countries].
 
Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are at loggerheads over the $4-billion dam; Cairo voiced concern over its water share [55.5 billion cubic meters] after Ethiopia started building the dam on the Blue Nile in May 2011.
 
In 2015, the three countries signed the Declaration of Principles, per which the downstream countries [Egypt and Sudan] should not be negatively affected by the construction of the dam.
In March 2021, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stated, “No one can take a drop of water from Egypt... If it happens, there will be inconceivable instability in the region that no one could imagine. This is not a threat.”
 
Sudan, as well has warned more than once of filling the GERD before reaching a legal binding agreement.
Ethiopia, on the other side affirms that the second filling will be conducted, despite all negotiations and mediations.

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