The two nations have had disagreements over the yearly flow of water that should be pledged to Egypt among other issues. Ethiopia has opposed the Egypt proposal for operation of the hydro dam Addis Ababa is building on the Nile calling it improper.
On Wednesday Sileshi Bekele Ethiopia’s minister for water, irrigation and energy said Addis Ababa will introduce a different plan. He said that they can’t agree with the proposal, they will make preparations of their counter proposal as the Egypt proposal was one-side decided that it didn’t consider their previous agreements.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), declared in 2011 is sketched to be the main feature of Ethiopia’s tender to become Africa’s biggest power exporter generating more than 6000 megawatts.
Egypt depends on the Nile for 90% of its fresh water and it needs the GERD’s reservoir to let out a higher volume of water than Ethiopia is willing to pledge and many more disagreements.
Sileshi described the Egyptian plan as a capable infringement of Ethiopia’s supreme power and also said that an Egyptian expert can’t control their dam. Egypt wants the dam to let out a minimum of 40 billion cubic metres (52 billion cubic yards) of water every year though Sileshi didn’t mention how much water Ethiopia will release.
“GERD will start power production by the end of 2020 and be fully operational by 2022 following construction delays,” Ethiopia said.
