Ethiopia and Sudan Are Working to Bring Egypt to Dialogue Over the Gerd

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Ato Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy, has emphasized that Ethiopia has the right to utilize its water resources and no one can stop it from doing so. The Minister made the remark at a consultative workshop held on Sunday (February 23) to assess the performance of the sector over the past six months of the current budget year.

Minister Alemayehu said that geographical location, most of Ethiopia’s rivers happen to be trans-boundary. It had always been willing and ready to share those trans-boundary waters with neighboring countries, and that was why it took the initiative and signed the Nile River Basin Cooperation Framework Agreement.

The country had also been working on the handling of possible future issues concerning the utilization of other trans-boundary waters. With reference to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ato Alemayehu repeated that the lower riparian countries would benefit highly from the dam and any problems would be minimal.

He said discussions had been going on with downstream countries over the report of the International Panel of Experts on the Impact of GERD on Downstream Countries until interrupted recently by Egypt’s withdrawal from the discussions. Ethiopia and Sudan have been working together to bring Egypt back to the dialogue, he added