Egyptian Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Hani Sewilam warns that Cairo rejects unilateral GERD operations and retains all legal options to safeguard its Nile water rights
By Staff Writer
(Nairobi, Kenya) — Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hani Sewilam issued a sharp warning to Ethiopia, declaring that Cairo rejects all “unilateral decisions” regarding the construction, filling, and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Speaking to domestic and international journalists in Cairo, Sewilam stated that Egypt retains the right to employ all measures allowed under international law to protect its water security, asserting that time does not legitimize what Cairo considers an unlawful project on shared Nile waters.
Sewilam claimed that uncoordinated operational protocols at the GERD pose structural and environmental risks for downstream nations, including potential “man-made flood disasters” or severe droughts across Sudan and Egypt.
Highlighting Egypt’s baseline vulnerability, the minister noted that 98 percent of the country’s renewable water originates outside its borders, with annual per capita availability dropping to 472 cubic meters—well below the international water scarcity threshold. While Egypt has invested in wastewater recycling and desalination initiatives, Sewilam emphasized that alternative technology cannot replace the Nile River as Cairo’s primary lifeline.
Despite opposing Addis Ababa’s management of the Blue Nile infrastructure, Cairo maintains that it supports broader “economic development in upstream states.” Sewilam stated that Egypt supported 36 development initiatives in the Southern Nile Basin, including funding commitments for South Sudan’s Grand Fula Dam project.
Egypt says it has disbursed over $120 million for water infrastructure across African partner nations and launched a new regional development fund backed by an initial $100 million capital allocation, framing Cairo’s opposition to the GERD as a legal and security grievance rather than a generalized stance against regional development.
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This is a declaration of war on innocent black people. With ‘Tsemdo’ and now the newly cooked up ‘alliance’, el-Sisi is now emboldened to send his F16’s that have been rusting in hangars and the newly shopped SU35’s to rain bombs and chemical weapons on the country of the colored. We will see how he will be able to withstand and survive the rage of the entire Africa. But his warning is not only meant for Ethiopia but also to other countries in the region where all the Nile River water originates. South Sudan has just declared that it will restart it’s dam project on the White Nile dam in its territory in a way that will never affect the level of water reaching Alexandria, Egypt as proven by the GERD Dam.
So preposterous, two-third of Ethiopians, a country providing two-thirds of water flowing to the Nile, will have to endure”permanent darkness” …It lives from handouts from , money-crazed “petrol-station” states wants to fund resource security in upstream states,…is this guy aware how big is Ethiopia and its population base. Theatrical show at a time when TPLF remnants want a bite of what is infact a genuinely and progressively developing state power which if put to work will indeed the power balance not only in East Africa but the Near East.