Sisi: Egypt did not go to war with African countries despite water challenge

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said that his country did not enter into a conflict with Ethiopia or other African countries over its share of Nile water, despite the water challenges Egypt is facing.

“Egypt’s water share is 55 million cubic meters [annually]. This share has not changed at all over the years, from when the Egyptian population was between 3 and 4 million people until now. Have we gone into conflict with our African brothers because of this share? No. But we worked on optimizing our resources... We made programs of water treatment, developed tertiary water development,” said President Sisi in a speech at the inauguration of the first African Health Excon on Sunday in Cairo.

“The programs created in Egypt in this field ensure that citizens all over Egypt get benefits from water in accordance with the World Health Organization’s standards and get benefits from every drop of water. By this, we would be one of the [leading] countries that optimize water usage and benefit from treatment and desalination processes in the favor of the people,” he continued.

Sisi’s comments came two months ahead of the potential third filling process of the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) due in August-September. He added that Egypt has adopted a number of programs to overcome water stress amid the increasing Egyptian population, which has reached more than 105 million people. 

Ethiopia is expected to start filling the dam’s reservoir in August and September, Kiffle Horo, manager of the GERD project, told Al-Arabyia TV on May 27, acknowledging the possible impact of filling the dam on the downstream countries, namely Egypt and Sudan.

Addis Ababa carried out the first and second operations to fill the dam in 2020 and 2021, with 8 billion cubic meters total.

The disagreement between the three countries began in May 2011, when Ethiopia started the construction of the dam despite Egypt and Sudan’s objections, as the latter countries feared a decrease in their water shares of the Nile. Egypt has the right to 55.5 billion cubic meters of the Nile water share, while Sudan’s share is 18.5 billion cubic meters. Since then, the three countries conducted a series of tripartite meetings and signed the 2015 Declaration of Principles.

However, the three countries are still at odds over the mechanism of operating the dam and the filling of its reservoir, despite the mediation of the African Union, the United Nations and the United States.