Abdel Aal Dicusses Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam Dillema

Hours before the 2020 senate elections, Al Ahram sat down with Dr. Ali Abdel Aal, speaker of the Egyptian house of representatives to discuss major issues currently occurring in Egypt. One of the questions Abdel Aal was asked was concerning Ethiopia's stubbornness that stall the negotiation of the Renaissance Dam.

Abdel Aal View on Renaissance Dam Dilemma

"Egypt has never stood against the aspiration of an African nation, not to mention a Nile basin country. We recognize those countries’ right to establish their own dams, to produce power and build developmental projects on the Nile," he assured.

"But this great river is an international source of water and the downstream countries have equal rights to development. As much as we recognize other peoples’ rights, no one should ignore ours, which have been acknowledged historically through binding international treaties."

He added that Egypt has helped establish several dams in Nile basin countries to enhance means of development in the continent.

Cairo spent eight years in futile negotiations with Addis Ababa in an attempt to create a joint vision to tackle the repercussions of the GERD and to avoid a shortage of water in downstream states.

The negotiating efforts were based on the simple fact that it should be a win-win situation. But unfortunately, the Ethiopian side has abused its position as an upstream state, acknowledging its sole interest in filling the dam and ignoring the unprecedented negative impact on downstream countries.

Ethiopia’s unilaterally move to fill the dam was behind Egypt’s complaint to the UN Security Council in June. As described by Abdel Aal, going to the Security Council was the right step on the path to securing Egypt’s right to the Nile water and avoiding tension in the region.