Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Hani Sewilam said they consider Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, built on the Blue Nile, illegitimate. Sewilam said Cairo reserved the right to take any measures it deems necessary to protect its water security.
He made the remarks at a briefing organized by Egypt’s State Information Service for foreign media representatives in Cairo.
Cairo seeks a legally binding agreement
The dam, whose construction Addis Ababa began on the Blue Nile in 2011, has been at the center of a years-long dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia. Egypt is calling for a legally binding agreement setting out rules for the dam’s filling and operation, including during periods of drought and flooding.
Sewilam said the completion of the dam and the passage of time did not mean that Egypt had accepted the current situation or relinquished its rights. He said the Declaration of Principles signed by Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in 2015 provided a roadmap containing obligations related to cooperation, the initial filling and annual operation of the dam, coordination and data sharing.
The Egyptian minister argued that the declaration did not authorize Ethiopia to take unilateral steps concerning the dam. Describing the continuation of filling and operation without an agreement as a breach of commitments, Sewilam said Egypt had given Ethiopia multiple opportunities to reach an understanding but that Addis Ababa had violated the Declaration of Principles.
Warning over uncoordinated operation
According to Sewilam, operating the dam without coordination could cause sudden increases or sharp declines in water flows, potentially affecting dams in Egypt and Sudan. Sewilam said Egypt’s main concern was not Ethiopia’s use of the dam to generate electricity, but when and how much water would be released and which rules would govern the process.
Sewilam said procedures to be applied during prolonged droughts or recurring periods of flooding should be established through a legally binding agreement. He also rejected Ethiopia’s assessment that Egypt receives the lion’s share of Nile waters.
Water data from Egypt and Ethiopia
Sewilam said Egypt’s annual allocation of 55.5 billion cubic meters of water accounted for 2.7 percent of the approximately 2 trillion cubic meters of rainfall received by the Nile Basin. He said Ethiopia received more than 1 trillion cubic meters of rainfall in 2023, with approximately 467 billion cubic meters falling in the Ethiopian part of the Nile Basin.
Sewilam said Ethiopia’s annual renewable water resources totaled approximately 122 billion cubic meters, while estimates of groundwater recharge in the country ranged from 51 billion to 81 billion cubic meters annually. He said these resources were linked to rainfall, whereas Egypt’s deep groundwater reserves were nonrenewable.
Sewilam said Ethiopia had more than 18 million hectares of agricultural land, compared with approximately 4.03 million hectares in Egypt. He said rain-fed agriculture in Ethiopia used approximately 148 billion cubic meters of green water annually, in addition to about 9.68 billion cubic meters of blue water supplied by rivers and groundwater.
Defining green water as water derived from rainfall and blue water as water obtained from rivers and groundwater, Sewilam said Ethiopia’s total agricultural water use reached approximately 158 billion cubic meters. He said the livestock sector’s water footprint was approximately 85.5 billion cubic meters, most of which consisted of green water.
Negotiations among the three countries
Sewilam called for greater cooperation on harvesting rainwater, using groundwater and improving water efficiency in agriculture. He said Ethiopia’s potential in solar and wind energy could diversify its energy sources and reduce pressure on water resources.
Egypt and Sudan are seeking a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam that would ensure the water rights and interests of the three countries are not harmed. Ethiopia argues that a binding agreement is unnecessary for operating the dam and that it does not intend to harm the interests of the other countries.
Negotiations among Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia were suspended for three years in 2020. Talks resumed in 2023 but stalled again in 2024.
