Egypt’s foreign minister said on Thursday that initial technical assessments show his country would not be harmed by the second and much larger filling of a disputed hydroelectric dam being built by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile.
Speaking before Parliament’s African affairs committee, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry appeared to be hedging Cairo’s likely reaction to Ethiopia’s second filling of the reservoir behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Mr Shoukry's comments also seemed designed to check the rise of calls in Egyptian media for Cairo to take military action after the latest round of talks over the dam reached a deadlock this month.
The most populous Arab nation, with 100 million people, Egypt depends on the Nile for more than 90 per cent of its fresh water needs.
A steep cut in its share of water from the river would wipe out hundreds of thousands of jobs and disrupt its delicate food balance.
The Blue Nile, with its source in Ethiopia, accounts for more than 80 per cent of Nile water.
Egypt and fellow downstream nation Sudan have in recent months forged close military ties, launching war games and signing a military co-operation agreement as Cairo repeatedly assured Khartoum of its unconditional support.
But Mr Shoukry warned that Egypt would not tolerate “huge harm” Sudan could suffer from the filling, which is due in July.
Sudan has said the filling could put at risk the lives of 20 million people and disrupt work at its power-generating dams on the Blue Nile.
“The initial technical assessment shows that there will be no damage [to Egypt] from the second filling, but a more accurate assessment will be the one carried out on the ground and that’s something state agencies are monitoring on daily basis,” Mr Shoukry told legislators.
“It’s an existential issue for the future of Egyptians. We can show no laxity in dealing with it. We deal with the issue with the utmost seriousness and commitment.”
Egypt would not take lightly any harm done to its interests by the second filling, the minister reaffirmed.
“If any harm is done, all state institutions will confront and remove it," Mr Shoukry said. "The potentially huge harm will be in Sudan and we cannot accept that.”
Last year’s filling was carried out without consultations with Egypt and Sudan.
While Egypt was not affected because of a bumper Nile flood that filled its Aswan Dam reservoir close to capacity, Sudan said it disrupted work at its water treatment plants, leaving thousands of homes without running water for days.
Ethiopia has said it intends to go ahead with the second filling, involving 13.5 billion cubic metres, whether or not an agreement on the operation and filling of the dam was reached with Egypt and Sudan.
Its offer of consultations specifically dealing with the second filling has been rejected.
Egypt and Sudan insist on a legally binding deal that includes ways to resolve disputes and deal with persistent future droughts.
Ethiopia says it prefers non-binding guidelines.
On Thursday, Ethiopia blamed Egypt and Sudan for the failure of the latest round of talks held in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the current chair of the African Union.
Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti claimed that the Sudanese military was serving the interests of a “party” other than Sudan when dealing with the dam issue.
It was a thinly veiled reference to Egypt, which has traditionally maintained close ties with Sudan.
Mr Mufti blamed Cairo and Khartoum for the failure of the Kinshasa talks, saying they deliberately prevented progress to justify the involvement of international parties in the process.
Ethiopia has rejected a Sudanese-Egyptian proposal to involve the US, the UN, EU and the African Union as mediators in the decade-long talks.
It says that the dam is an African issue that could only be resolved by Africans.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
RESULTS
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Moral education needed in a 'rapidly changing world'
Moral education lessons for young people is needed in a rapidly changing world, the head of the programme said.
Alanood Al Kaabi, head of programmes at the Education Affairs Office of the Crown Price Court - Abu Dhabi, said: "The Crown Price Court is fully behind this initiative and have already seen the curriculum succeed in empowering young people and providing them with the necessary tools to succeed in building the future of the nation at all levels.
"Moral education touches on every aspect and subject that children engage in.
"It is not just limited to science or maths but it is involved in all subjects and it is helping children to adapt to integral moral practises.
"The moral education programme has been designed to develop children holistically in a world being rapidly transformed by technology and globalisation."
Netherlands v UAE, Twenty20 International series
Saturday, August 3 - First T20i, Amstelveen
Monday, August 5 – Second T20i, Amstelveen
Tuesday, August 6 – Third T20i, Voorburg
Thursday, August 8 – Fourth T20i, Vooryburg
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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