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Apr 23, 2012
Ethiopia's giant dam muddies the waters downstream in Egypt
ASWAN, EGYPT // About 1,287 kilometres south of this Egyptian city where the Nile river pours into Egypt, construction has begun on a massive dam being built in Ethiopia that could destabilise Egypt in a way that would make the last year of political upheaval look minuscule, analysts say.
If constructed at specifications revealed last year, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam would result in cuts in electricity, a reduction in agricultural lands and water shortages across major cities in Egypt, new studies say.
"In short, it would lead to political, economic and social instability," said Mohamed Nasr El Din Allam, who was Egypt's minister of water and irrigation until early last year. He edited a book-length collection of studies on the dam published last month. "Millions of people would go hungry. There would be water shortages everywhere. It's huge."
Those dire forecasts stem from Ethiopia's decision last year to announce an increase in the size of the dam, which is already under construction 40 kilometres from the Sudanese border. Ethiopian officials revealed the depth of the dam would be enlarged to 150 metres from 90m, alongside plans to boost electricity production and use water pooling behind the dam to irrigate more than 500,000 hectares of new agricultural lands.
Ethiopia's announcement has created new tensions in water-rights negotiations among the 10 countries that form the Nile Basin and emerged as one of the biggest diplomatic challenges for a growing Egypt.
More than any of the other countries along the basin, Egypt and Sudan are dependent on the water from the river because of their lack of secondary water resources and little rainfall. Egypt receives 55 billion cubic metres and Sudan receives 18.5bn cubic metres per year, under a series of agreements that date back to a 1929 treaty drawn up by Britain when it held power over much of North Africa.
Those agreements have long irked upstream countries, which they describe as a colonial-era injustice because of treaties' favourable distribution of water to Egypt and Sudan, as well as giving them the right to veto projects that would be "harmful" to their national interests.
The Nile Basin Initiative was established in 1999 to establish an equitable agreement among the countries. But divisions emerged from the start, hinging on Egypt's and Sudan's unwillingness to negotiate their share of the water and insistence on retaining veto rights. Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya signed their own deal, known as the Entebbe Agreement, that said projects could be built as long as they don't "significantly" affect the water flow. Egypt, which sees the wording as a precursor to cuts of its share, called the agreement a "national security" threat.
Ethiopia in particular has struck a defiant stance, with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi saying in a television interview in 2010 that "some people in Egypt have old-fashioned ideas based on the assumption that the Nile water belongs to Egypt… The circumstances have changed and changed forever".
Just a month after the uprising in Egypt forced Hosni Mubarak to resign and hand power over to the military, the Nile river tensions escalated to new levels when Ethiopia announced new details of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Ethiopian officials said there would be no impact on Egypt, but analysts and officials in Egypt argue the impact would range from bad to devastating.
The problems would start with the filling of the 62bn cubic metre reservoir behind the dam, which would immediately reduce the flow of water to Egypt and Sudan. How bad the impact would be depends on the rate they decide to fill it.
Egypt already has one of the highest rates of recycling water on the continent, reusing water in the Nile delta region as many as four or five times to meet its total needs of 75bn cubic metres a year. Kidney disease in those areas is on the rise and the country's northern lakes are becoming increasingly polluted from water reuse, which is hurting fish populations.
Mr Allam, the former water minister of Egypt, said the country needs solutions to bring even more water to Egypt and cannot sustain on less than its current allotment.
"I believe in the full right of Nile Basin countries, especially Ethiopia, to develop and increase their economies," he said. "But they shouldn't do this if it causes significant damage to their sister countries."
A new panel, with representatives from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, as well as international water experts, is now tasked with assessing the impacts of the dam. They are expected to begin their work in mid-May.
Egypt's main diplomatic tool, analysts say, will be to lobby the World Bank and other donors not to provide financing to projects that hurt its share of the water. Ethiopia has started issuing bonds to raise money, but it would be unable to finance the US$4.8bn (Dh17.63bn) dam without help.
The sabre-rattling among the Nile basin countries has to do with two competing views: upstream countries are looking for development projects that benefit their growing populations quickly, such as dams that increase electricity production and agricultural expansion, while Egypt and Sudan are pushing for a longer term approach that would first enhance the flow of the river before agreeing to projects that will cut back the flow.
"We don't have a crisis in water, but we have a problem in managing it," said Hani Raslan, the director of the Sudan and Nile basin studies programme at the state-run Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.
Observers in Egypt blame the dispute with Ethiopia - and the wider dispute with the lower basin countries - on Mubarak's neglect of African relations during his more than 30 years of rule that ended last year during a popular uprising.
"We used to have beautiful relations with the African countries," said Fathi El Taher, in the city of Abu Simbel on Lake Nasser near the Sudanese border. "But we abandoned them for Israel and the United States. We need long-term diplomatic solutions and that means going back to our brothers and investing in their countries."
Mr El Taher, 73, was one of the first mayors of Abu Simbel, which is famous for an ancient Egyptian tomb with huge carved statues of Pharoah Ramses II. The entire tomb had to be moved piece-by-piece to higher ground and reconstructed after the completion of the Aswan High Dam that created Lake Nasser and modern Abu Simbel.
"We know about the power of the river," he said. "It is everything to us."
http://www.thenational.ae/news/worl...m-muddies-the-waters-downstream-in-egypt#full
---------
Jul 16, 2012
Morsi visits Ethiopia to seek unity in Nile nations over water
Egypt's new president, Mohammed Morsi, was in Addis Ababa yesterday, amid tense relations between the two countries over the Nile river.
Egypt and Sudan, which rely on the Nile river for nearly all their water needs, are in a deadlock with the other Nile Basin countries, including Ethiopia, over rights to use the water.
During the political chaos after Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign as president last year, Ethiopia announced it was moving ahead with an enlarged version of its US$4.8 billion (Dh17.6bn) Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Africa's largest hydroelectricity project.
Egyptian officials believe the dam, under the specifications revealed, would drastically cut the amount of water available and cause economic and humanitarian problems in Egypt.
Ethiopia is home to the source of the Blue Nile, which flows downstream to Sudan and then farther north to Egypt. The Blue Nile contributes the majority of the river's water from the point it meets the White Nile outside Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, and all the way north to Egypt's Mediterranean coast.
The two-day visit of Mr Morsi to Ethiopia was itself a milestone. Mubarak refused to return there after he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by Islamic extremists in Addis Ababa in 1995.
Mr Morsi began his visit yesterday with a speech at a meeting of the African Union, where he said that Egypt needed the support of African nations to "rebuild" and called for a stronger "African market".
"I would like to officially announce that Egypt has a desire to work towards a common African market," he said. "Egypt will use its human and financial resources to ensure that. We stress our concern with education, health, construction and development."
His diplomatic overtures hinted at Egypt's growing concern that Nile Basin countries were moving ahead with development projects that would cut the flow of water to Egypt and Sudan.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam would cause "political, economic and social instability", said Mohamed Nasr El Din Allam, who was Egypt's minister of water and irrigation from 2009 until early last year, in an interview in March. His dire forecast came after Ethiopia announced its dam would be dug to a depth of 150 metres, compared to the earlier specification of 90m, to provide more electrical power and water for irrigation projects on new farms.
Depending on the speed with which Ethiopia could flood its dam, the problems could range from bad to devastating, he said.
Ethiopia, one of the world's poorest countries, is seeking to become a power exporter with a series of dam projects over the next several years.
Disputes over water rights among the 10 countries that form the Nile Basin have been simmering for years.
Egypt receives 55 billion cubic metres and Sudan receives 18.5bn cubic metres per year, under a series of agreements that date back to a 1929 treaty drawn up by Britain when it held power over much of North Africa. But upstream countries, such as Ethiopia, have argued that those agreements, which give Egypt and Sudan veto powers over projects that could be "harmful" to their interests, were signed during the colonial era, and should be rewritten to allow countries to equally share in the river's economic potential.
A framework for discussions, the Nile Basin Initiative, was set up in 1999 to establish an equitable agreement among the countries.
However, the talks have are in limbo because of Egypt and Sudan's unwillingness to negotiate their current share of the water and insistence on keeping veto rights.
Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya signed an alternative deal, known as the Entebbe Agreement, that said projects could be built as long as they don't "significantly" affect the water flow. Egypt called the agreement a "national security" threat.
Ethiopia in particular has become increasingly confrontational with Egypt. Prime minister Meles Zenawi said in a television interview in 2010 that "some people in Egypt have old-fashioned ideas based on the assumption that the Nile water belongs to Egypt … The circumstances have changed and changed forever".
The dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia calmed somewhat after the two sides agreed last year to create a technical committee to assess the impacts of the dam. A report is not expected until next year.
Egypt's main diplomatic tool in negotiations is its ability to lobby foreign donors and international organisations to withhold financing for the dam because of the adverse impacts on its economy. Ethiopia has issued bonds to raise money for the dam, but cannot finance it alone.
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/morsi-visits-ethiopia-to-seek-unity-in-nile-nations-over-water
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May 30, 2013
Ethiopia diverts the Nile for Dh17bn dam, alarming countries downstream
Ethiopia has begun diverting the flow of the Nile to build a Dh17 billion hydroelectric dam that is alarming countries downstream.
Work on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile will begin at the end of next year, the deputy prime minister Debretsion Gebremichael said yesterday.
Ethiopia is the source of the larger of the two tributaries of the world's longest river for water.
The diversion is of particular concern to Egypt, which relies almost exclusively on the river for water.
The dam, set for completion in 2017, is part of Ethiopia's plan to invest more than Dh44 billion in harnessing the rivers that run through its rugged highlands and become Africa's leading power exporter.
The dam has been a point of contention between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia for years, and the tension was exacerbated after the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's regime.
Just weeks after Mubarak's resignation as president, the Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi announced the dam would be even bigger and more ambitious than had previously been disclosed. Zenawi died in August 2012, but the dam has since forged ahead with construction.
Ethiopian officials said on Tuesday that engineers had begun redirecting the course of the Blue Nile, the larger of two tributaries that merge in Sudan to form the Nile river, by 550 metres to create a dry area for construction of the main dam infrastructure.
"The dam is being built in the middle of the river so you can't carry out construction work while the river flows," said Mihret Debebe, chief executive of the state-run Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.
The diversion is unlikely to affect the volume of the water flow, but the milestone makes clear the intentions of Ethiopia to continue with construction even before negotiations with downstream countries are complete.
Egypt's real worry is several years away, when Ethiopia will begin filling a giant basin behind the dam. Every year that the basin is filled, the flow of water to Egypt and Sudan will be reduced.
Any reduction in Egypt's share of the waters would hurt farming, lead to water shortages and decrease power production, according to a 2012 book of studies edited by the former Egyptian water minister Mohamed Nasr El Din Allam.
"In short, it would lead to political, economic and social instability," he said last year. "Millions of people would go hungry. There would be water shortages everywhere. It's huge."
The government of Mohammed Morsi has strived to develop better relations with Ethiopia over the past year. One of Mr Morsi's first trips as Egypt's president was to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where he pledged to work more closely with African countries and help them to develop their economies.
Mohammed Bahaa El Din, the minister of water resources and irrigation, said this month that Egypt was not opposed to the dam so long as it did not hurt downstream countries.
"Crises in the distribution and management of water faced in Egypt these days and the complaints of farmers from a lack of water confirm that we cannot let go of a single drop of water from the quantity that comes to us from the Upper Nile," he said.
Ethiopia maintains that it should be allowed to develop its economy through building hydroelectric plants on the dam. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will have a capacity to produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to make Ethiopia into a regional power supplier.
Hindering efforts by Egypt and Sudan in negotiating to keep their supply of water at the same level is a coalition of upstream countries - Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya - who are pushing for a greater share of water.
The coalition sees the agreements and treaties that guarantee Egypt and Sudan a combined 73.5 billion cubic metres of water - 55.5 billion for Egypt and 18.5bn for Sudan - and granting them the right to veto any projects judged "harmful" to their interests as a colonial-era injustice.
Together the countries have proposed a rewording of the treaty so that no projects could be developed that significantly affect the water flow, which Egypt and Sudan believe is a clear signal that their share will be cut.
That prospect has led to speculation of a regional water conflict. The late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat said in 1979: "The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water."
Ethiopia diverts the Nile for Dh17bn dam, alarming countries downstream - The National
Ethiopia's giant dam muddies the waters downstream in Egypt
ASWAN, EGYPT // About 1,287 kilometres south of this Egyptian city where the Nile river pours into Egypt, construction has begun on a massive dam being built in Ethiopia that could destabilise Egypt in a way that would make the last year of political upheaval look minuscule, analysts say.
If constructed at specifications revealed last year, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam would result in cuts in electricity, a reduction in agricultural lands and water shortages across major cities in Egypt, new studies say.
"In short, it would lead to political, economic and social instability," said Mohamed Nasr El Din Allam, who was Egypt's minister of water and irrigation until early last year. He edited a book-length collection of studies on the dam published last month. "Millions of people would go hungry. There would be water shortages everywhere. It's huge."
Those dire forecasts stem from Ethiopia's decision last year to announce an increase in the size of the dam, which is already under construction 40 kilometres from the Sudanese border. Ethiopian officials revealed the depth of the dam would be enlarged to 150 metres from 90m, alongside plans to boost electricity production and use water pooling behind the dam to irrigate more than 500,000 hectares of new agricultural lands.
Ethiopia's announcement has created new tensions in water-rights negotiations among the 10 countries that form the Nile Basin and emerged as one of the biggest diplomatic challenges for a growing Egypt.
More than any of the other countries along the basin, Egypt and Sudan are dependent on the water from the river because of their lack of secondary water resources and little rainfall. Egypt receives 55 billion cubic metres and Sudan receives 18.5bn cubic metres per year, under a series of agreements that date back to a 1929 treaty drawn up by Britain when it held power over much of North Africa.
Those agreements have long irked upstream countries, which they describe as a colonial-era injustice because of treaties' favourable distribution of water to Egypt and Sudan, as well as giving them the right to veto projects that would be "harmful" to their national interests.
The Nile Basin Initiative was established in 1999 to establish an equitable agreement among the countries. But divisions emerged from the start, hinging on Egypt's and Sudan's unwillingness to negotiate their share of the water and insistence on retaining veto rights. Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya signed their own deal, known as the Entebbe Agreement, that said projects could be built as long as they don't "significantly" affect the water flow. Egypt, which sees the wording as a precursor to cuts of its share, called the agreement a "national security" threat.
Ethiopia in particular has struck a defiant stance, with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi saying in a television interview in 2010 that "some people in Egypt have old-fashioned ideas based on the assumption that the Nile water belongs to Egypt… The circumstances have changed and changed forever".
Just a month after the uprising in Egypt forced Hosni Mubarak to resign and hand power over to the military, the Nile river tensions escalated to new levels when Ethiopia announced new details of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Ethiopian officials said there would be no impact on Egypt, but analysts and officials in Egypt argue the impact would range from bad to devastating.
The problems would start with the filling of the 62bn cubic metre reservoir behind the dam, which would immediately reduce the flow of water to Egypt and Sudan. How bad the impact would be depends on the rate they decide to fill it.
Egypt already has one of the highest rates of recycling water on the continent, reusing water in the Nile delta region as many as four or five times to meet its total needs of 75bn cubic metres a year. Kidney disease in those areas is on the rise and the country's northern lakes are becoming increasingly polluted from water reuse, which is hurting fish populations.
Mr Allam, the former water minister of Egypt, said the country needs solutions to bring even more water to Egypt and cannot sustain on less than its current allotment.
"I believe in the full right of Nile Basin countries, especially Ethiopia, to develop and increase their economies," he said. "But they shouldn't do this if it causes significant damage to their sister countries."
A new panel, with representatives from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, as well as international water experts, is now tasked with assessing the impacts of the dam. They are expected to begin their work in mid-May.
Egypt's main diplomatic tool, analysts say, will be to lobby the World Bank and other donors not to provide financing to projects that hurt its share of the water. Ethiopia has started issuing bonds to raise money, but it would be unable to finance the US$4.8bn (Dh17.63bn) dam without help.
The sabre-rattling among the Nile basin countries has to do with two competing views: upstream countries are looking for development projects that benefit their growing populations quickly, such as dams that increase electricity production and agricultural expansion, while Egypt and Sudan are pushing for a longer term approach that would first enhance the flow of the river before agreeing to projects that will cut back the flow.
"We don't have a crisis in water, but we have a problem in managing it," said Hani Raslan, the director of the Sudan and Nile basin studies programme at the state-run Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.
Observers in Egypt blame the dispute with Ethiopia - and the wider dispute with the lower basin countries - on Mubarak's neglect of African relations during his more than 30 years of rule that ended last year during a popular uprising.
"We used to have beautiful relations with the African countries," said Fathi El Taher, in the city of Abu Simbel on Lake Nasser near the Sudanese border. "But we abandoned them for Israel and the United States. We need long-term diplomatic solutions and that means going back to our brothers and investing in their countries."
Mr El Taher, 73, was one of the first mayors of Abu Simbel, which is famous for an ancient Egyptian tomb with huge carved statues of Pharoah Ramses II. The entire tomb had to be moved piece-by-piece to higher ground and reconstructed after the completion of the Aswan High Dam that created Lake Nasser and modern Abu Simbel.
"We know about the power of the river," he said. "It is everything to us."
http://www.thenational.ae/news/worl...m-muddies-the-waters-downstream-in-egypt#full
---------
Jul 16, 2012
Morsi visits Ethiopia to seek unity in Nile nations over water
Egypt's new president, Mohammed Morsi, was in Addis Ababa yesterday, amid tense relations between the two countries over the Nile river.
Egypt and Sudan, which rely on the Nile river for nearly all their water needs, are in a deadlock with the other Nile Basin countries, including Ethiopia, over rights to use the water.
During the political chaos after Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign as president last year, Ethiopia announced it was moving ahead with an enlarged version of its US$4.8 billion (Dh17.6bn) Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Africa's largest hydroelectricity project.
Egyptian officials believe the dam, under the specifications revealed, would drastically cut the amount of water available and cause economic and humanitarian problems in Egypt.
Ethiopia is home to the source of the Blue Nile, which flows downstream to Sudan and then farther north to Egypt. The Blue Nile contributes the majority of the river's water from the point it meets the White Nile outside Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, and all the way north to Egypt's Mediterranean coast.
The two-day visit of Mr Morsi to Ethiopia was itself a milestone. Mubarak refused to return there after he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by Islamic extremists in Addis Ababa in 1995.
Mr Morsi began his visit yesterday with a speech at a meeting of the African Union, where he said that Egypt needed the support of African nations to "rebuild" and called for a stronger "African market".
"I would like to officially announce that Egypt has a desire to work towards a common African market," he said. "Egypt will use its human and financial resources to ensure that. We stress our concern with education, health, construction and development."
His diplomatic overtures hinted at Egypt's growing concern that Nile Basin countries were moving ahead with development projects that would cut the flow of water to Egypt and Sudan.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam would cause "political, economic and social instability", said Mohamed Nasr El Din Allam, who was Egypt's minister of water and irrigation from 2009 until early last year, in an interview in March. His dire forecast came after Ethiopia announced its dam would be dug to a depth of 150 metres, compared to the earlier specification of 90m, to provide more electrical power and water for irrigation projects on new farms.
Depending on the speed with which Ethiopia could flood its dam, the problems could range from bad to devastating, he said.
Ethiopia, one of the world's poorest countries, is seeking to become a power exporter with a series of dam projects over the next several years.
Disputes over water rights among the 10 countries that form the Nile Basin have been simmering for years.
Egypt receives 55 billion cubic metres and Sudan receives 18.5bn cubic metres per year, under a series of agreements that date back to a 1929 treaty drawn up by Britain when it held power over much of North Africa. But upstream countries, such as Ethiopia, have argued that those agreements, which give Egypt and Sudan veto powers over projects that could be "harmful" to their interests, were signed during the colonial era, and should be rewritten to allow countries to equally share in the river's economic potential.
A framework for discussions, the Nile Basin Initiative, was set up in 1999 to establish an equitable agreement among the countries.
However, the talks have are in limbo because of Egypt and Sudan's unwillingness to negotiate their current share of the water and insistence on keeping veto rights.
Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya signed an alternative deal, known as the Entebbe Agreement, that said projects could be built as long as they don't "significantly" affect the water flow. Egypt called the agreement a "national security" threat.
Ethiopia in particular has become increasingly confrontational with Egypt. Prime minister Meles Zenawi said in a television interview in 2010 that "some people in Egypt have old-fashioned ideas based on the assumption that the Nile water belongs to Egypt … The circumstances have changed and changed forever".
The dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia calmed somewhat after the two sides agreed last year to create a technical committee to assess the impacts of the dam. A report is not expected until next year.
Egypt's main diplomatic tool in negotiations is its ability to lobby foreign donors and international organisations to withhold financing for the dam because of the adverse impacts on its economy. Ethiopia has issued bonds to raise money for the dam, but cannot finance it alone.
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/morsi-visits-ethiopia-to-seek-unity-in-nile-nations-over-water
-----------
May 30, 2013
Ethiopia diverts the Nile for Dh17bn dam, alarming countries downstream
Ethiopia has begun diverting the flow of the Nile to build a Dh17 billion hydroelectric dam that is alarming countries downstream.
Work on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile will begin at the end of next year, the deputy prime minister Debretsion Gebremichael said yesterday.
Ethiopia is the source of the larger of the two tributaries of the world's longest river for water.
The diversion is of particular concern to Egypt, which relies almost exclusively on the river for water.
The dam, set for completion in 2017, is part of Ethiopia's plan to invest more than Dh44 billion in harnessing the rivers that run through its rugged highlands and become Africa's leading power exporter.
The dam has been a point of contention between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia for years, and the tension was exacerbated after the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's regime.
Just weeks after Mubarak's resignation as president, the Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi announced the dam would be even bigger and more ambitious than had previously been disclosed. Zenawi died in August 2012, but the dam has since forged ahead with construction.
Ethiopian officials said on Tuesday that engineers had begun redirecting the course of the Blue Nile, the larger of two tributaries that merge in Sudan to form the Nile river, by 550 metres to create a dry area for construction of the main dam infrastructure.
"The dam is being built in the middle of the river so you can't carry out construction work while the river flows," said Mihret Debebe, chief executive of the state-run Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.
The diversion is unlikely to affect the volume of the water flow, but the milestone makes clear the intentions of Ethiopia to continue with construction even before negotiations with downstream countries are complete.
Egypt's real worry is several years away, when Ethiopia will begin filling a giant basin behind the dam. Every year that the basin is filled, the flow of water to Egypt and Sudan will be reduced.
Any reduction in Egypt's share of the waters would hurt farming, lead to water shortages and decrease power production, according to a 2012 book of studies edited by the former Egyptian water minister Mohamed Nasr El Din Allam.
"In short, it would lead to political, economic and social instability," he said last year. "Millions of people would go hungry. There would be water shortages everywhere. It's huge."
The government of Mohammed Morsi has strived to develop better relations with Ethiopia over the past year. One of Mr Morsi's first trips as Egypt's president was to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where he pledged to work more closely with African countries and help them to develop their economies.
Mohammed Bahaa El Din, the minister of water resources and irrigation, said this month that Egypt was not opposed to the dam so long as it did not hurt downstream countries.
"Crises in the distribution and management of water faced in Egypt these days and the complaints of farmers from a lack of water confirm that we cannot let go of a single drop of water from the quantity that comes to us from the Upper Nile," he said.
Ethiopia maintains that it should be allowed to develop its economy through building hydroelectric plants on the dam. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will have a capacity to produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to make Ethiopia into a regional power supplier.
Hindering efforts by Egypt and Sudan in negotiating to keep their supply of water at the same level is a coalition of upstream countries - Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya - who are pushing for a greater share of water.
The coalition sees the agreements and treaties that guarantee Egypt and Sudan a combined 73.5 billion cubic metres of water - 55.5 billion for Egypt and 18.5bn for Sudan - and granting them the right to veto any projects judged "harmful" to their interests as a colonial-era injustice.
Together the countries have proposed a rewording of the treaty so that no projects could be developed that significantly affect the water flow, which Egypt and Sudan believe is a clear signal that their share will be cut.
That prospect has led to speculation of a regional water conflict. The late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat said in 1979: "The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water."
Ethiopia diverts the Nile for Dh17bn dam, alarming countries downstream - The National
