Ethiopian action on Renaissance Dam rejected as unilateral act, says Egypt

Ethiopian action on Renaissance Dam rejected as unilateral act, says Egypt

CAIRO: Any action taken by Ethiopia on the Renaissance Dam is a unilateral act that is rejected, an Egyptian government minister has said. Ethiopia began work on the 1.8-kilometer, multi-billion dollar dam in 2011. Egypt fears it will threaten its water supply from the Nile, while Sudan is concerned about the dam's safety and its own water flow. Egypt's Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel-Aty stressed his country's persistence in preserving its water rights and achieving benefits for all parties involved in any agreement regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). He also stressed Egypt's quest for a just and binding legal agreement meeting the aspirations of all countries in development and that any action taken without such an agreement and without coordination with the downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, was a unilateral act that was rejected. Abdel-Aty said that Egypt supported development in the Nile Basin and African countries as it had established rainwater harvesting dams and underground drinking water stations to provide pure drinking water in remote areas. Solar energy technology was being used in a large number of these groundwater wells to allow their sustainable operation, he added. The minister referred to projects that purified waterways