Sharaqi explained during a television interview on a program that “the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will negatively affect Egypt’s share of the Nile water, due to the retention of large quantities of water behind the dam’s gates as part of the storage process that takes place annually and continues until September.”
He pointed out that the Ethiopian side aims to fill the reservoir behind the dam with an amount of up to 74 billion cubic meters of water, which is an amount that exceeds the annual share of water that reaches the Nile River downstream countries combined, including Egypt and Sudan.
Sharaki stressed that “the local population in Ethiopia will not benefit directly from the dam’s water reservoir, as rain-fed agriculture is widespread in large parts of Ethiopia, while other farms need to be irrigated with fresh water, and these farms are located near the riverbed and not in the reservoir areas.”
He also explained that “Ethiopia is a landlocked country with no seashores, and its capital, Addis Ababa, is located at an altitude of more than 2,500 metres above sea level, which makes it an arid region with little rainfall.”
On the other hand, Sharaqi praised the good size of the water reserve in Lake Nasser, which is achieved thanks to rationalization operations and saving wasted quantities of water.
He also pointed out that “Egypt is implementing a number of national projects aimed at ensuring water security and dealing with the repercussions of the construction of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, such as water treatment, desalination and reuse projects, canal lining projects, developing irrigation systems, and others.”
The expert spoke about the “Entebbe Agreement,” stressing that it is “a framework agreement signed by the Nile Basin countries in 2010, and is concerned with joint cooperation in the areas of managing and using surface and groundwater resources, while the agreement grants upstream countries the right to implement projects to generate hydroelectric power and agriculture based on water without the need for prior notification to downstream countries.”
Source: RT + Egyptian media
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2024-07-27 12:18:06
