Senior Egyptian source: We will not allow any party to control Nile water flows to downstream countries
A senior Egyptian official source confirmed that the recent statements attributed to Ethiopia’s Minister of Water and Energy regarding the construction of additional dams on the Nile River and “controlling” water flows to the downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, represent a deliberate continuation of Ethiopia’s unilateral approach, in blatant violation of international law.
The official Egyptian Al-Sharq Al-Awsat news agency quoted the senior source as saying that these statements reflect Addis Ababa’s persistent delusion that it can impose hegemony over a shared international river and subordinate it to the will of a single state, emphasizing that Egypt will neither accept nor allow any party to control water flows to the downstream countries.
The source added that these statements once again undermine Ethiopia’s repeated claims that its actions aim at development without harming others, as the explicit declaration of seeking to control the flows of an international river to downstream countries reveals a highly dangerous trend that aims less at achieving legitimate development and more at imposing a fait accompli.
He pointed out that this also reflects the monopolization of a shared international water resource and the use of geographical position to threaten the water rights and interests of the downstream countries, a practice not recognized by international law, which Egypt will not allow to be imposed as a fait accompli.
The same source stressed that the Nile River does not belong to any single state, and that illusions of controlling it or unilaterally managing its flows blatantly contradict the established rules of international law governing shared international rivers, foremost among which are the principles of no harm, consultation, consensus, good-faith cooperation, and respect for the rights and interests of other basin states. He emphasized that Egypt had previously declared in its addresses to the UN Security Council that it would take all measures permitted under international law to protect the rights and assets of its people in the Nile River, affirming that the Egyptian state’s tools are diverse, multifaceted, and capable of effectively advancing and defending the Egyptian people’s interests in the Nile.
