ADDIS ABABA- Egypt’s insistence on its “historical right” on the water of the Nile is the main hurdle to reaching consensus on the GERD, and not the filling and operating of the dam, according to a senior expert. Talking to The Ethiopian Herald, Tefera Beyene, Adviser on Transboundary Rivers for Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy, said that as long as Egypt continues with its “historical right” stance, and that it only should be utilizing the waters, it goes against Ethiopia’s rights to use its resources, and the two cannot coexist.
According to him, this is also the underlying cause for the failure to reach an agreement on the process of filling and operating the dam. If the issue was only about the filling and operating of the dam, it would have been possible to reach a consensus, he continued, but since it’s about maintaining past inequitable utilization of the river, Ethiopia cannot accept it.
With regards to the filling and operating of the dam, Ethiopia’s position is legitimate as it takes into account hydrological modeling, where if there is a huge amount of rain in a given period, the filling will take shorter time, whilst during less rainfall, it will take longer time. “This is a sensible proposal and it is science.” So, I think they can reach an agreement on this, but the issue is not about how to fill the dam, but about them trying to hang on a colonial-era agreement.
Going forward there needs to be an understanding on the other side of the aisle that Ethiopia has the right to fairly use its resource, and any talks that are made without acknowledging this cannot bear any result that benefits all. Further, Tefera also pointed out that Ethiopia has done its due diligence in making sure that no significant harm comes to the downstream countries, and the necessary international standard that is expected when such a dam is built were observed. There have been a panel of international experts that was commissioned to report on the impact of the dam, and an Independent Scientific Research Group consisting of experts and academics from Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia that was set up to discuss the various scenarios of filling up of the dam. As to him, Ethiopia’s involvement in the Washington talks is also a signifier of Ethiopia’s willingness to find an amicable solution for the process, despite its reservation on third party involvement and the partisan manner the talks were handled.
“The talks were partisan and sided with Egypt, and as the procedure of the talks was flawed, so was the outcome .” The way forward should be to further strengthen the momentum of the talks of the experts of the countries’ as it’s a technical issue, and reach a win-win solution without the involvement of a third party. Finally, Tefera indicated that cooperative water resources utilization in the Eastern Nile Basin, which naturally the river presents different opportunities/gifts to the three countries based on their topography, will yield better results to all of them. The presence of GERD has a positive impact on the three Eastern Nile riparian countries, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt, provided that they agree to work cooperatively.
The Ethiopian Herald April 8/2020
BY STAFF REPORTER
