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Borkena
Toronto – Ethiopia’s Water and Energy Minister, Habtamu Eteffa, says the “view that we made [financial] support for the dam is incorrect.”
The Minister made the remark during an interview with BBC Amharic this week.
“This Renaissance Dam is built with Ethiopian People and government financing,” the minister emphasized, underscoring that Ethiopia has not received financial support from any other entity.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia has not made an official remark in response to President Donald Trump’s claim. However, Aregawi Berhe, Director General of the Public Participation Coordination Office for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), sternly discarded the claim as “incorrect.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has been making repeated claims that the United States financed the construction of the Ethiopian Dam. However. he did not specify how it financed or the amount of money channeled towards the construction of the dam.
Meanwhile, Habtamu Eteffa also said that Ethiopia is still open for negotiation with Egypt. The construction of the dam is already completed. It is scheduled to be inaugurated on September 9.
Despite its completion, Ethiopia is still expressing readiness for negotiation with Egypt. There has been a pressure on Ethiopia with the aim to secure a “binding agreement.” The Minister tends to think that Egypt’s pursuit of it emanates from the desire to make Ethiopia sign committing her to the amount of water that Egypt wants.
Ethiopia’s position has been equitable use of the water and an end to monopoly over the water 85 percent of which emanates from its highlands.
Egypt was standing on “historical right” position which is a reference to a colonial era agreement that allocated over 55 percent of the water volume to it.
The Minister also highlighted that an International experts team was formed to study if the construction of the dam impacts the lower riparian countries (Egypt and Sudan). There was no finding from the study that the dam will impact the lower riparian countries.
Before the international experts, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have signed an agreement in 2015 on the principle of constructing. As per the agreement, Ethiopia was to continue constructing the dam while the negotiation on it continued. However, the negotiation since then did not bear fruit.
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I wish someone with a proper knowledge of finances would pull officials like Obbo H.E. Habtamu Eteffa and have a word or two about the multi faceted benefits of foreign aids. Good Ole USA might not have provided financial assistance intended for the construction of the dam directly but it has done so indirectly when it poured billions in US dollars as humanitarian and other forms of aids. USA has given Ethiopia direly needed monetary and material aids to the tune close to 22 billion in US dollars since 2001 and close to 1.8 billion in 2023 and 1.2 billion in 2024 in US dollars in these two years alone. YTD in 2025 USA has poured about 250 million in US dollars into that nation’s coffers already with 4 months to go before the year is over. Such generous financial aids have helped that country to free up money to be used in the construction of the dam. It should have been looked at as such by officials such as Obbo Habtamu Eteffa and others like him who erred in the same manner. The response should have been ‘Thank you’. To be thankful is in our legendary tradition. We are so cultured people albeit the commies, bigots and connivers among us.