'Egypt showed much lenience in negotiations on GERD filling, operation': Irrigation Minister

CAIRO – 20 April 2022: Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel Aty asserted Tuesday, in a meeting with the Japanese ambassador, that Egypt showed much lenience throughout the decade-long negotiations on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) built on the Nile River.   

The minister displayed the current status of negotiations, which has stalled, affirming Egypt's keenness on fulfilling the interests of all parties but not at the expense of its water rights. That is why it would not forfeit its demand for a legally binding agreement on the operation and filling of the hydropower project.  

Speaking of Egyptian-Japanese cooperation in the water resources sector, the minister lauded the outstanding collaboration between the two countries in that realm, and that is embodied in introducing and modernizing water facilities.

Currently, the ministry is building New Dairout Barrages, which is funded by a Japanese soft loan. In the past years, six other barrages were introduced on Bahr Youssef, a lake located in Fayoum governorate, through a Japanese grant. Those are called New Lahoun, Start of Giza Canal, Start of Hassan Wassef, Mazoura, Saqoula, and Monshaet Dahab.

The dispute among Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia dates back to May 2011 when Ethiopia started building the dam; Egypt voiced concern over its water share [55.5 billion cubic meters].

Constructions in the Grand Renaissance Dam started on April 2, 2011 at a cost of $4.8 billion. It was built by the Italian construction and engineering company Salini Impergilo. The dam is located on the Blue Nile with a planned capacity of 74 billion cubic meters, and was expected to generate up to 6,000 megawatts of power.

However, it is estimated to generate only 3,000 megawatts, as the number of turbines to be installed has been reduced to 13 turbines down from 16.

The first and second fillings were carried out in 2020 and 2021, respectively, making the total 8 billion cubic meters.