Egypt announced that it would not allow any party to control the flow of Nile waters reaching the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan. An Egyptian official said this position was part of his country’s approach to protecting its water rights and interests.
The official criticized comments attributed to Ethiopia’s Minister of Water and Energy, Habtamu Itefa, suggesting that new dams would be built on the Nile to control the water flow to downstream countries. He argued that these remarks showed Ethiopia was continuing its unilateral approach and constituted a clear violation of international law.
Cairo emphasizes water rights
The Egyptian official said it was unrealistic to believe that Addis Ababa could establish dominance over a shared international river and place the Nile under the will of a single country. He added that the latest remarks contradicted statements that Ethiopia’s actions were aimed solely at development and would not harm the interests of other countries.
Emphasizing that the Nile is an international river, the official said the resource could not be considered the property of any country. He noted that attempts to unilaterally control the river’s flow were incompatible with established international legal rules governing the management of shared international rivers.
The official argued that this approach was not a legitimate development goal but an attempt to create a fait accompli and establish a monopoly over a shared international water resource. He said Egypt would not allow the water rights and interests of downstream countries to be threatened through the use of geographical position.
Stating that the Egyptian state had various means at its disposal to protect and defend the interests of its people on the Nile, the official reiterated that they would not accept any party establishing control over the water flow to Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia did not immediately respond to the remarks.
Ethiopia’s plan for new dams
Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Hani Sewilam said on August 4 that they would not allow new Ethiopian dams to be built on the Nile. Sewilam said Egypt was aware of Ethiopia’s plans to build new dams, but that the answer to whether Egypt would allow them was “no.”
The statement came approximately two weeks after reports that Addis Ababa planned to build three new dams on the Nile in addition to the existing Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
At the center of the dispute between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia is a disagreement over the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. For the dam, whose construction began in 2011, Cairo and Khartoum want an agreement that sets out rules for filling and operation and is legally binding on all three countries.
Egypt and Sudan argue that such an agreement is necessary to prevent harm to their countries’ water rights and interests. Ethiopia, meanwhile, maintains that a binding agreement is not necessary to operate the dam and says it does not intend to harm the interests of another country.
Negotiations among the three countries had stalled for three years, resumed in 2023 and were suspended again in 2024.
The Nile Basin
The Nile Basin includes 11 countries: Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt. The river, approximately 6,650 kilometers long, is at the center of water management disputes among the basin countries.
