Egypt vows to defend its water security ‘uncompromisingly’ if damage occurs due to GERD

CAIRO – 22 September 2024: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Badr Abdelatty, has emphasized Egypt's right to uphold its water security in the face of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and to protect its interests in accordance with international law.

Speaking to the Saudi news portal Asharq News, Abdelatty underscored the critical importance of water as "an existential issue for Egypt," being the sole nation entirely dependent on the transboundary Nile River as its primary water source.

Responding to inquiries about the potential use of military action regarding the GERD, Abdelatty affirmed, "We will defend our interests within the framework of international law."

"We are a nation that honors its commitments, a responsible state," Abdelatty stated, emphasizing that Egypt only deploys forces abroad under United Nations mandates and peacekeeping operations.

"However, Egypt is also fully capable of protecting its water interests and security. Should harm arise, we will defend our interests unequivocally, given that they concern the well-being, security, and stability of over 110 million people," he declared.

"We cannot jeopardize the interests of this esteemed nation for the whims of any party here or there," Abdelatty added.

The foreign minister attributed the cessation of all negotiation avenues between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia regarding the GERD since 2023 to Ethiopia's "evasion and bad-faith negotiations."

Abdelatty pointed out that despite 13 years of negotiations, no results were achieved, with Ethiopia leveraging the talks to impose a fait accompli and advance its dam construction agenda.

Reiterating Egypt's demand for a legally binding agreement on the GERD's operation, Abdelatty stressed that this objective is "non-negotiable."

He insisted that such an agreement should encompass essential legal principles, notably the commitment to not harm the interests of downstream countries and the necessity of prior notification for any projects on the Nile River.

Abdelatty affirmed that the Nile, as an international river not owned by any single state, falls under international law.

Pursuit of binding deal

Given Egypt's heavy reliance on the Nile for its water requirements, the country perceives the dam as a significant threat to its already strained water supply.

Egypt and Sudan had endeavored to secure a binding agreement with Ethiopia concerning the GERD to protect their water rights. However, Ethiopia proceeded with dam filling and operation without their consent.

Egypt, grappling with severe water shortages, depends on the Nile for its water supply, with a per capita water supply of around 550 cubic meters per year—well below the globally recognized threshold for water scarcity set at 1,000 cubic meters per person.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has stressed Egypt’s water share as a “red line.”

“No one should envision themselves as beyond the reach of our capabilities … Egypt's water is sacrosanct. Our response in case of [meddling with the Egyptian water share] will reverberate throughout the stability of the entire region,” Sisi said in press remarks in 2021.

Dominance over Nile

Despite Ethiopia's defense of the dam as beneficial for downstream countries and its own power generation, Egypt's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, Hani Sewilam, stated last year that Ethiopia is constructing the dam to assert political dominance over the Nile River.

Egypt announced last year that the revived negotiation track over the long-standing dam dispute had concluded, as the fourth and final trilateral round of talks with Ethiopia and Sudan failed to produce results.

Egypt attributed the breakdown to Ethiopia's persistent refusal of proposed middle-ground technical or legal solutions to safeguard the interests of all three countries.

In early September, Abdelatty addressed a letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council, condemning Ethiopia's recent actions regarding GERD as a continuation of its provocative stance toward its neighbors.

He added that such actions "threaten the stability of a region, where most countries seek to enhance cooperation and integration among each other rather than sow discord among peoples bound by ties of brotherhood and shared destiny."