Egypt ready to deal with any GERD problems, says minister

Egypt ready to deal with any GERD problems, says minister

MOSCOW: The Egyptian Minister of Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Aty confirmed Cairo's readiness to deal with all the problems arising from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). In televised statements, the minister said that Egypt is not concerned, even if Ethiopia implements the second phase of filling the Renaissance Dam reservoir. He said that the state would not wait for any damage to occur and that Egypt had prepared for all possible scenarios five years ago. Abdel Aty stressed that Egypt and Sudan showed great flexibility in GERD negotiations with Ethiopia. "Ethiopian intransigence is the reason for the failure of the negotiations," he said. He explained that Cairo and Khartoum reached a fair and binding legal agreement that meets the aspirations of all countries in development. He added that the Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation is making great efforts to deal with the repercussions of the dam by implementing projects to face any emergency that the water system may face. He announced that Egypt rejected Ethiopia's proposal to form a mechanism for exchanging data on the procedures for implementing the second phase of filling the GERD. The ministry believes that the Ethiopian offer was an "open attempt" to extract Egyptian approval for