Egypt escalated its rhetoric against Ethiopia on Friday, asserting that no tangible progress was made in talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that Addis Ababa is building on the Nile River.
In a statement, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the final round of a four-meeting series between Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa on Thursday failed to reach a deal due to Ethiopia’s “intransigence.”
The Ministry also accused Ethiopia of imposing a fait accompli and controlling the Blue Nile without taking into consideration the water interests of the downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan.
It said the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' statement on GERD negotiations includes some “misleading and unacceptable information” on Egypt.
On Thursday, Ethiopia’s Minister of Water Seleshi Bekele said Egypt proposed setting the time of the filling of the dam in 12 to 21 years, while Cairo said no agreement could be reached in the latest round of talks held in Addis Ababa on Ethiopia’s $5 billion dam.
The talks were proposed by the US that sits with the World Bank as observers in the meeting.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Friday that Cairo did not specify a number of years to fill the dam.
“The three countries agreed more than a year ago on filling the dam in stages depending on the water flow of the Blue Nile. The Egyptian proposal leads to filling the Renaissance Dam in 6 or 7 years if the river’s inflow is at average or above average during the period of filling the dam,” it said.
However, the statement added that during the period of drought, the Egyptian proposal enables the Renaissance Dam to generate 80 percent of its electricity production, which means that Ethiopia will bear the minimum burden of drought.
Cairo said it submitted rules and mechanism to cope with the hydrological changes of the Blue Nile inflow and with the expected years of drought during the period of filling the dam.
The statement said those measures would also take into consideration the slowdown in the filling process and releasing amounts of water from the dam’s reservoir to reduce its negative impacts on the downstream countries.
Cairo affirmed Friday it would participate in the upcoming meeting for the foreign and water ministers of the three countries in the US Department of Treasury on Jan. 13.
The construction of the dam is around 70 percent complete.
