CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has called on the international community to pull together in a bid to find a just and lasting solution to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam crisis.
His appeal on Sunday came at the opening of the fifth session of Cairo Water Week, organized by Egypt and entitled “Water at the Heart of Climate Action.”
Egypt has renewed its commitment to attempting to settle the GERD issue in a manner that satisfies interests of all parties.
The issue has raised tensions between Ethiopia on one hand and Egypt and Sudan on the other.
Egypt and Sudan are demanding a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam, which they fear will reduce their share of the Nile’s waters.
A large number of ministers, official delegations and senior officials from their respective countries’ water sectors took part in Sunday’s event.
The president said it was necessary for Egypt to adopt a comprehensive approach to deal with water and food security challenges associated with climate change.
He added: “Our entrenched vision is to work together with a focus on establishing and sharing prosperity, instead of competition and rivalry, which lead to sharing impoverishment and instability.
“We dream of a common endeavor to maximize the wealth of the Nile Basin that its nations shall all enjoy, instead of acting individually and competing in an uncooperative way that will result in a limited development falling short in size and scope, in a manner that destabilizes them.”
El-Sisi said that Egypt’s stance is founded on the conviction that adhering to the spirit of cooperation and compatibility in areas of shared interests is the only way to prevent adverse outcomes through unilateral actions in river basins. He added that the best international practices, particularly those in Africa, have demonstrated this.
He said the rapid development of civilization had increased pressure on available water resources and many countries faced increasing challenges to meet their basic water needs.
He added that Egypt is one of the most arid countries in the world and relies almost entirely on the Nile River for its renewable water resources. He pointed out that about 80 percent of the resources go to the agricultural sector, the source of livelihood for more than 60 million people or half of Egypt’s population.
El-Sisi said his country’s water resources were unable to meet growing demand despite the adoption of a policy to rationalize consumption.
He added: “The impacts of climate change exacerbate water scarcity on the agricultural lands in Egypt, which are affected by the adverse consequences of climate change within its borders and throughout the Nile Basin countries as Egypt is a downstream country.”
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called on participants to discuss water-related challenges facing desert countries.
