(3 minutes read)
· Ethiopia’s has rejected Egypt’s call to refer the dispute over Addis Ababa’s construction of the giant Nile dam to the United Nations Security Council
· However, Egypt is against the project with the present terms and conditions since it apprehends that it would create floods and drought in the country.
· Egypt mainly depends on Nile for meeting 90% of its water requirements
Ethiopia has rejected Egypt’s call to refer the dispute over Addis Ababa’s construction of the giant Nile dam to the United Nations Security Council. The US $4.6 billion project on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, is designed to create an hydroelectric dam in Africa, which can ensure energy security to some of the countries in Africa like Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.
However, Egypt is against the project with the present terms and conditions since it apprehends that it would create floods and drought in the country. Egypt mainly depends on the Nile for meeting 90% of its water equirements. That way Egypt sees the project as a potentially existential threat and feels that the project is interfering with the sovereign nation’s peaceful activity.
However, Ethiopia has a different take. It feels that the issue with the dam can be solved bilaterally or ultilaterally (since countries like Sudan’s interest is also involved) instead of taking it to the UN Security Council. Ethiopia maintains that it is not the mandate of the Security Council to decide on the issue since it is a development project and sovereignty of any country is not infringed. On the other hand, Ethiopia believes that interference of the security council would tantamount to interfering in a sovereign nation’s peaceful activity.
The Ethiopian Foreign ministry clarified that it had no intention of withholding water from other countries further downstream along the River Nile. Calling for eschewing conflict in the matter, the ministry has called for using the upcoming dam for promoting development, brotherhood and peace, which can bring prosperity to the region. It is to be seen how Egypt would react to the stand of Ethiopia. Experts feel that the thorny issues have the potential to precipitate into a conflict situation unless both countries try to resolve it through a give and take approach. Significantly, both nations have hinted at military steps to protect their interests.
