The construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has reached a significant milestone, marking a crucial step towards Ethiopia’s ambition to become Africa’s leading power exporter. As the project progresses, trilateral talks between Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt have been initiated to address concerns and ensure regional cooperation.
It is known that the country began building the Abbay Dam in 2011 with the aim of harnessing its vast water resources for economic development. To address some of the concerns of downstream nations, Sudan and Egypt, and foster regional cooperation, trilateral talks were initiated between the three countries. These negotiations aim to find a mutually beneficial solution that ensures Ethiopia’s development goals are met while safeguarding the interests of downstream nations.
The most recent and anticipated negotiation was the fourth and last round of trilateral negotiations, which took place in Addis Ababa and featured productive discussions between delegates from all three nations. In accordance with the agreement that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el Sisi and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed struck on July 13, 2023.
However, Egypt is engaged in manipulative fantasies of the colonial era Nile agreement. Claiming that these are historical rights, Cairo is working tirelessly and sacrificing everything to preserve the unfair and antiquated colonial agreements.
Regional collaboration in the Nile Rivers is being impeded by Egypt’s unbalanced stance. Egypt’s claims of historical rights are seen by other countries bordering the Nile as nothing more than historical injustice that goes against the ideas of a win-win strategy and shared resource management in the twenty-first century.
Egypt, emboldened by its masters, has been unjustly taking the benefits of shared resources for centuries, unopposed and unquestioned. Other members, such as Ethiopia, the river’s source, have been left in the dark while the nation has had exclusive use of the Nile, leaving them as bystanders.
Though the GERD is a national and sovereign project solely funded and constructed by Ethiopians, the country has been doing its level best not only to bring the downstream countries on board but also to find a common ground where the three countries would be able to benefit from the colossal dam. Despite the encouraging developments, Egypt continued to be a roadblock to any attempts at mutual understanding on unresolved GERD-related issues.
Egypt, on the other hand, has been sluggish to take new steps and has been dragging its heels to uphold the unjust system. Ethiopia’s approach is friendly and sincere, in stark contrast to the actions of the country.
Ethiopia has been to Washington, Cairo, and Khartoum to talk with downstream nations over the years, demonstrating its unwavering commitment to using diplomacy and peaceful methods to settle disputes.
Nevertheless, the fourth round of negotiations ends without a deal due to Cairo Oldies’ unsatisfactory offer and wayward thinking. Furthermore, the nation continues to spread misleading information through the media.
According to ENA GERD Negotiation Team Chairman, Sileshi Bekele, stated that Egypt should cease its misguided propaganda and media campaign because negotiations are the only way to settle the dam’s disputes. Despite certain differences, the entire negotiating process has been progressive, he added.
The downstream nations have been urged to return to the negotiating table Sileshi said. Recall that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also rejected the statement of Egypt that violates the UN Charter and the Constitutive Act of the African Union. It has also rejected the misrepresentation of its positions by Egypt.
“There is no significant difference from Article one to five of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam,” Ethiopia’s Sileshi said, elucidating the progress made by the tripartite committees. Harmonizing such pieces would be simple.
The key difference is found in article six, which talks about the share of water and water-related concerns. According to Sileshi, this article also addressed the management of water during drought conditions and its flow from the Renaissance Dam.
He claims that since the dam releases more water from the reservoir during droughts, the downstream nations are greatly blessed by it. The dam reservoir will partially discharge water in the event of a drought.
Sileshi emphasized the importance of making sure that no country is harmed by water sharing, and Ethiopia wants the problem resolved through the 2015 Declaration of Principles, which encourages fair water use without seriously harming any country.
He listed the adjustment of water from GERD, where Ethiopia is willing to discharge 31 billion cubic meters yearly, as one of the other issues impeding the deal. “We stated that future adjustments are required. This is due to the fact that it will result in issues for both the current and upcoming generations. This is the primary issue, and it is difficult to resolve. Sudan and Egypt maintain that we won’t be making any changes.
Furthermore, a water share arrangement from the colonial era was subtly suggested, especially by Egypt. “Such a strategy that harms our nation will not succeed, particularly the way they are claiming to share the water allocation and expecting Ethiopia to approve them. This is entirely incorrect. He emphasized that no nation totally gives up its resources.
As an upstream nation, Sileshi reiterated that Ethiopia has no plans to consume Nile water alone, saying, “We have pushed for a dream together to bring regional integration.” Ethiopia has not adopted a hard stance as a result, and it will continue to work toward developing the Nile River without endangering other nations while also ensuring negotiating transparency.
Political Economic Analyst for Africa, Lawrence Freeman told The Ethiopian Herald that Egypt is motivated by a type of ideology dependent on what it claims historical rights rather than understanding the implication of the Abbay Dam.
In order to come to a consensus on the matter, he stated that Egypt should put more effort into realizing the development potential of the Abbay Dam than it should into stubbornly defending an erroneous historical right to a share of the water.
He said that nobody could have a historical right since the dam is on the Blue Nile (Abbay River). “There is no real argument there. I think the Egyptians want a guaranteed amount of water that will flow to the Aswan dam and that cannot be delivered and the Ethiopians would be remiss and wrong in my view if they guaranteed it because they can’t,” he said. But they can be joined in collaboration and he noted that Egyptians are currently denying their ability to work together.
According to Freeman, Abbay Dam is a dam for producing hydropower for development in which the electricity is ready to be exported to Djibouti, Kenya, and Sudan. It needs to look at the potential of this increase injection of 5150 megawatts as a potential to develop nations in the Blue Nile and the White Nile, he added. He also noted that Egypt doesn’t want to see Ethiopia as a major economic competitor, which is a false way of looking at the potential rather than countries uniting together for economic development.
“Ethiopia is claiming the right of sovereignty over its river systems and energy production. And I don’t think much is going to change from that. And I don’t think there’s anything the Egyptians are going to do that’s going to change it. And the Egyptians have maintained that they must have so much water guaranteed for them every year, which is impossible for Ethiopia to do,” he elaborated.
Ethiopia is still hopeful, nevertheless, that Cairo will return to negotiations led by the AU and cooperate. Furthermore, the former stated once again how inappropriate the colonial arrangement is and how keen it is to work with countries downstream.
BY EYUEL KIFLU
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 24 DECEMBER 2023
