Egypt's UN mission holds seminar on efforts to reach deal on Ethiopia's dam

CAIRO – 25 September 2020: The Egyptian mission to the United Nations in Geneva organized on Thursday a seminar to explain Egypt’s efforts to reach a deal on the disputed Ethiopian dam and preserve the interests of the concerned states.

"In continuation of the efforts of the Foreign Ministry to explain Egypt's position regarding negotiations on the Ethiopian dam, Egypt's mission to the UN held a seminar with the participation of experts in environmental sciences, management of water resources and legal professors in Geneva, along with the Egyptian team of negotiators,” Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said.

The seminar came “to clarify Egypt's efforts to work out a deal that takes into consideration the interests of the three countries," he added.

Since May 2011, Cairo has voiced its concern over how the dam can reduce the country’s annual shares of 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water. Egypt’s average water per-capita is expected to drop from 663 cubic meters per year to 582 cubic meters by 2025, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in 2014.

Earlier, Ethiopia announced completing the first filling of the dam, although a binding agreement among Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia has not been reached.

In a speech he gave at the United Nations’ 75th General Assembly, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi highlighted the Egyptian concerns over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) which is established by brotherly and neighboring Ethiopia.

“We spent almost a decade in painstaking negotiations with our brothers in Sudan and Ethiopia to realize an agreement on the operation and filling of the dam in a way that balances between the Ethiopian people’s right in development and Egyptian water interests and right to life,” added Sisi during his UNGA speech.

The president highlighted the World Bank and America’s efforts during the current year to pave the bridges between the three countries, and the South African president’s initiative to launch the negotiations under the auspices of the African Union.

“However, these efforts did not end with the “expected results,” said Sisi.

The president asserted that the Nile Waters must not be monopolized by one part, adding that the International society should encourage all the involved parts to realize an agreement that serves the common interests.