Egypt: We retain all measures and safeguards provided by international law to protect our water security
Cairo, 20 Sep (KUNA) -- Egypt affirmed on Sunday that it reserves all measures and safeguards provided under international law to protect its water security and the rights and interests of its people, stressing that "all legitimate options remain open to the Egyptian state."
Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Dr. Hani Sowlim, stated this during a meeting with accredited foreign media correspondents in Egypt, attended by the Head of the Egyptian State Information Service, Ambassador Alaa Youssef. He noted that Egypt’s signing of the Declaration of Principles with Ethiopia in 2015 did not constitute an authorization for Ethiopia to act unilaterally, but rather established specific obligations related to cooperation, avoiding significant harm, agreeing on rules for the initial filling and annual operation, and establishing a mechanism for coordination and the exchange of data and information.
Regarding the characterization of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) as "illegitimate," Sowlim clarified that this is a deliberate political description grounded in a clear legal stance on the dam, which was constructed, filled, and operated unilaterally. He emphasized that the completion of construction or the passage of time does not imply Egypt’s acceptance of the imposed reality, nor does it negate Egypt’s position or rights, and it grants Egypt the right to act in the manner it deems in its interest, according to the appropriate option available to it.
He added that Egypt considers proceeding with filling and operation without agreement on these rules to be a "breach of obligations" that Ethiopia itself accepted when signing the Declaration of Principles.
Sowlim explained that the fact that the GERD is a power generation project does not render its operation without consequences. The issue is not merely about the volume of water consumed, but also about the timing of storage and release, flow quantities, and operational rules.
In this context, he stressed that "unilateral" and uncoordinated operation has demonstrated the dam’s capacity to cause sudden increases in flows, which Egypt described as an "industrial flood," or to reduce flows to a level that could lead to an "industrial drought," thereby disrupting the operation of dams and water infrastructure in downstream countries.
Sowlim addressed recent Ethiopian statements that included more explicit talk of controlling water, considering that "this language exposes the contradiction in the discourse that has presented the dam for years as merely an electricity and development project, and confirms, from the Egyptian perspective, the core of the concerns that led Cairo from the outset to insist on a legally binding agreement."
He affirmed that the construction of a facility within a country’s borders does not transform an international watercourse into a purely national resource, nor does it grant the upstream state the right to unilaterally dispose of a resource on which other peoples and states depend.
The Minister of Water Resources stated that the Egyptian position is based on a clear, non-contradictory equation: "full cooperation and genuine support for the development of Nile Basin countries when projects comply with the rules of international law, and full firmness in protecting Egypt’s water security and rejecting the imposition of fait accompli or the repetition of unilateral approaches."
(End) A.S.M / M.A.H.A
