Egyptians and Sudanese launched a campaign to warn of the dangers of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, while two ministers in Ethiopia said that their country needs more diplomatic efforts to clarify its position on the issue.
The "International Campaign to Protect Egypt and Sudan from Thirst" in its first conferences today, Saturday, via video, warned of the dangers of the dam, after Ethiopia recently started filling the dam reservoir on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile River.
This non-governmental campaign was launched with the participation of experts from Sudan and Egypt, including Egyptian opponents.
During the conference entitled "The cry of the people of Egypt and Sudan ... No to thirst, not to drowning, not to destruction," Sudanese academic specialized in international water law Ahmed Al-Mufti said that "Ethiopia worked to prepare the Renaissance Dam from 2008 to 2011, taking advantage of the poor political conditions in Egypt And Sudan. "
The Mufti considered that all measures taken by Ethiopia from the launch of the dam in 2011 until the signing of the agreement by the three countries concerned in the 2015 principles for organizing the dam are "illegal actions".
For his part, the Egyptian academic, Essam Abdel Shafi, said that "Ethiopia was able to impose itself, taking advantage of crises in neighboring countries, and was its constant desire to undertake a comprehensive national achievement embodied in the Renaissance project."
Ethiopian diplomacy
On the other hand, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Guido Andargashio said that the Renaissance Dam is a major project that has united all Ethiopians and has addressed issues of national consensus in the Ethiopian nation since its inception in 2011.
He added during a videoconference organized by the Ethiopian embassy in India under the title "Setting the negotiations for the Renaissance and the future dam" that the future development of the dam needs a great deal of diplomatic efforts to clarify Ethiopia's "reasonable" stance towards the Renaissance Dam towards the rest of the world.
"All Ethiopians, especially those working abroad in the academic field, must inform the world of Ethiopia's reasonable position on the Nile through publications and other media," he added.
Andaragashiu considered that negotiations on the dam could have been completed in its early stages with profitable results if the downstream countries accepted what he described as the friendly approach to Ethiopia.
Building and filling in parallel
For his part, Ethiopian Minister of Water and Energy Seleci Baqli said that Ethiopia had learned many constructive lessons from past ups and downs regarding construction and diplomatic issues related to the dam.
He stressed the importance of future efforts, saying, "The dam issues need more diplomatic efforts to present a true picture of Ethiopia to the world regarding the dam."
Baqli explained that the construction of the Renaissance Dam follows a smart approach that allows construction work and filling the dam in parallel, noting that the construction of the dam will be completed in 2023 and that power generation from it will start next year using two turbines.
He added that the artificial lake behind the dam would create a suitable environment for embarking on economic activities such as fisheries, tourism and timber manufacturing.