Ethiopia rejects Egypt’s request for the Great Renaissance Dam to be filled with water for seven years. Ethiopia’s Minister for Water and Energy, Sileshi Bekele, said at a press conference in Cairo at the end of last week that Ethiopia will not accept some of Egypt’s proposals.
Among the Egyptian ideas which rejected by Ethiopia is the request for the dam to be filled with water within seven years. In addition, Ethiopia does not agree with Egypt’s proposal to release 40 million cubic meters of water annually from the Renaissance Dam. The minster said:
“Egypt wants the Renaissance Dam to be filled 40 million cubic meters of water annually, without reducing the average flow rate. That would be inappropriate. We cannot agree on such a requirement because it imposes a problem for future development on our part, and this leads us to make another agreement like this issue with Sudan. “
“In a negotiation in Cairo, Egypt asked the Ethiopian, If The Aswan Dam is lowered from 165 meter above sea level, Ethiopia should reales water from Great Renaissance Dam. This means that the Aswan dam is 165 meters and it reaches up to 78 billion cubic meters of water. So it is a request that the Renaissance Dam should release more water when the Aswan water drops to that size. And this kind of question is not appropriate.” By these reason Ethiopia rejected Egypt’s proposal. In addition to Dr. Sileshi Bekele in the Cairo negotiations, Sudan’s Minister of Water and Irrigation Yasir Mohamed Abbas and Egypt’s Minister of Water, Mohamed Abdul Aty are participated.
