Egypt objected to the high storage capacity of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), claiming it affects its national water security, a new problem in the already tense Egyptian-Ethiopian relationship, reported state news agency MENA. Egypt said that its studies showed that the capacity of the dam, 74 bn cubic meters, is unexplained and unacceptable, calling on Ethiopia to reduce this storage capacity to the "safe limits" agreed upon in negotiations between the three countries of the Nile Basin, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan last August. Consultant to Egyptian Irrigation minister, Alaa Yassin, stated that Egypt has committed to the road map agreed upon in Khartoum, while Ethiopia continues building the dam with the same technical deficiencies that harm Egypt's share of Nile water. "Egypt is asking the two other countries to comply with the road map without procrastination", he added. Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Patriarch Abune Mathias, who arrived in Cairo on Saturday, commented on the GERD's crisis saying the dam will greatly benefit the three countries and asking the Egyptian side to accept this new development in neighboring countries. Relations between Egypt and Ethiopia witnessed tensions since the start of the GERD construction in 2011, however an initial agreement had been achieved after rounds of negotiations last August in Khartoum. Egypt receives 55.5 billion cubic meters of the total 84 billion cubic meters of Nile water annually, according to 1929 and 1959 agreements.
