Egypt's water minister says Ethiopia should compensate his country and neighbouring Sudan for the “damage” they suffered as a result of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam built on a major tributary of the Nile.
“There is no precedent of a dam the size of the Ethiopian one being built through unilateral action,” Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Hany Sewilam said in comments carried by Egyptian media.
“Damage has been sustained because 38 billion cubic metres out of Egypt's share of 55 billion cubic metres had been denied, and the state's task was to shield citizens from the effects of the damage,” he added, demanding “compensation”.
“We managed to satisfy the needs of our farmers during this tough period,” he said, without providing a timeline for the loss of Nile water or specifying whether Egypt was seeking monetary or other forms of compensation.
The Gerd is on the Blue Nile, which originates in Ethiopia's highlands and accounts for more than 80 per cent of the Nile water that Egypt and Sudan receive, with the remainder mostly coming from the White Nile.
Egypt, one of the world’s driest countries, relies on the Nile for nearly all its fresh water. It has long maintained that Nile waters are an existential issue for its 108 million people and has warned that any reduction in its share would have a disastrous effect on food security and wipe out millions of farming jobs.
Sudan, however, says deadly flooding in some regions was caused by Ethiopia’s failure to share real-time data on the dam’s operations. The flooding also disrupted power generating at some of Sudan’s Nile dams.
Ethiopia insists the Gerd will not harm the interests of Egypt and Sudan and emphasises its importance to its own development. More than a decade of negotiations between the three countries has failed to produce an agreement on the operation of the hydroelectric dam, with Ethiopia rejecting calls from Cairo and Khartoum for international mediation involving the African Union, the EU and the World Bank.
Mr Sewilam’s comments mark the first time an Egyptian official has publicly raised the issue of compensation for damage caused by the dam. They also run counter to the widespread belief that plentiful rainfall in Ethiopia has spared Egypt a loss of Nile waters during the filling of the Gerd reservoir.
Ethiopia insists the dam will not harm the interests of Egypt and Sudan and emphasises its importance to its own development. More than a decade of negotiations between the three countries has failed to produce an agreement on the operation of the hydroelectric dam, with Ethiopia rejecting calls from Cairo and Khartoum for international mediation involving the African Union, the EU and the World Bank.
Mr Sewilam said Egypt’s water conservation and recycling policies had spared the country some of the damage caused by the dam. He said Egypt recycles and reuses 23.2 billion cubic metres of water annually, and that its water treatment plants add a further 4.8 billion cubic metres each year.
His comments followed Egypt’s welcome over the weekend of an offer by US President Donald Trump to mediate in the dispute with Ethiopia. Sudan, an ally of Egypt, also welcomed the offer.
A US mediation in the dispute would be the second by Washington, which hammered out an agreement during Mr Trump's first term in office (2017-2021) that Egypt accepted but Ethiopia refused to sign in the last minute.
The dispute and US mediation will be high on the agenda when President Abdel Fattah El Sisi meets President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland this week, according to sources in Cairo.
The meeting between the two leaders was announced by the Egyptian presidency on Tuesday, but without giving a date.
