Abdullah Hamed-Cairo
Lawyer and human rights activist Ali Ayoub has filed a lawsuit against Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for failing to refer the Renaissance Dam agreement to parliament for approval or rejection, in accordance with article 151, paragraph 1, of the constitution.
Ayoub called in his case urgently to stop the implementation of the negative decision to refrain from Sisi to refer the Declaration of Principles agreement to the House of Representatives, which Egypt concluded on 23 May 2015 with Ethiopia and Sudan.
The case was restricted to the Court of Administrative Justice (urgent) before the First Chamber of Rights and Freedoms.
Concerns over the Nile issue hope that the framework agreement signed by al-Sisi will be vetoed so that Egypt can break its commitment. State institutions will not lose sight of any move that could save Egypt from the next water crisis when Ethiopia begins filling the dam.
In a video posted on his Facebook page a few days ago, Egyptian parliamentarian Ahmed Tantawi said that the agreement signed by Sisi on the Renaissance Dam is the biggest problem facing Egypt in the current situation.
Tantawi added, "We have made requests in parliament to discuss the agreement, either we agree to become effective, or reject it becomes as if it was not, and did not respond to us."
He continued, "If the President of the Republic signed an agreement with Ethiopia and Sudan assuming goodwill, the days have proved the opposite, and the parliament to exercise its constitutional powers, and to discuss the agreement, and reject it."
The agreement signed by al-Sisi gave Ethiopia a hand in accelerating the construction of the dam, after the flow of funding to build it, after many years of hesitation of international institutions to contribute to it, fearing that it will not be completed due to the objection of the two downstream countries, as stipulated in international agreements.
The scene sparked a storm of cynicism, while observers saw it as a spectacle of great dangers, indicating how Sisi is managing a vital dossier with such political disdain.
Egypt faces the threat of thirst because of the Renaissance Dam, which the Egyptian government says is blocking a large part of the country's share of the Nile water, prompting Sisi and Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to declare that Egypt has entered the water poverty stage, in conjunction with the announcement of negotiations with the Addis Ababa government to a dead end .
Egyptian officials said their country would seek to pressure Ethiopia into accepting an external mediator to resolve the dispute, while Addis Ababa refuses to involve a fourth party in the stalled negotiations.
Cairo, which fears the dam's impact on its 55 billion cubic meters of Nile water, accounting for 95 percent of its water needs, is based on historical rights under the 1929 and 1959 conventions, while Ethiopia refuses to recognize past agreements granting Egypt the right to refuse dams. If that affects its water share.