Egypt has made a formal request to Ethiopia for the studies and data regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam, an Arabic Egyptian outlet reported on Thursday.
According to the news, which cited an unnamed official of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation of Egypt, the request includes for all data that is necessary to determine the effect of the new dam ‘on the nature of Nile River’ as well as on the two lower stream countries – Egypt and Sudan.
The official also said the requested is made in light of ‘generally accepted legal principles’ and ‘in the spirit of the Nile Basin Initiative’ – whatever that is supposed to mean.
The official indicated that Egypt’s stance towards Ethiopia’s new dam depends on the evaluation of its impact ‘on the share of Egypt and Sudan’.
The official expressed hopes that the Ethiopian reciprocate Egypt’s effort o start ‘a new relationship’ and also ‘a transparent one.’
This comes after Minister Alemayehu Tegenu revealed that Egypt made no formal request to his office in his interview with Reuters on Monday. The news which received wide coverage in Egyptian media apparently put pressure on the government.
Earlier, on March 31, Almasry Alyoum reported that Irrigation Minister Hussein al-Atfy said that Egypt is awaiting the Ethiopian government’s reply to its request for technical and environmental studies of the Great Millennium Dam. The Minister claimed that Egypt demanded Ethiopia for technical and environmental studies and Egypt would resort to the international community if Ethiopia failed to reply.
However, an Ethiopian official promptly rejected the matter when presented by the media a few days later. Dina Mufti, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said to the English weekly Addis Fortune: “Any questions they have about the development of water have to come through the CFA(Cooperative Framework Agreement or the Entebbe Treaty)”. “This is the spirit and purpose of the CFA. We will not deal with them unless it is through the CFA.”
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