THERE is a wide gap separating the official statements and experts' opinion over the Ethiopian step of changing the Nile course by starting the construction of the Nahda (Renaissance) Dam. When the Egyptian Presidency as well as the Ministry of Water Resources have affirmed that the dam, the biggest to be created on any river in the world, would not affect Egypt's quota of the Nile water. However, experts including former ministers of water resources assert that the project would seriously harm Egypt and catastrophically so in the first years of the project. Strangely, the Presidency does not rely on a specific theory or statistics to support its stand on the project. Instead, Morsi's administration relies on a mere verbal assurance recently given by the Ethiopian Premier to President Mohamed Morsi during the latter's visit to Addis Ababa, where he attended the African Union Summit. The Ethiopian government claimed that the dam would not affect Egypt's quota of the river. However, it is known that Ethiopia led the other Nile Basin countries into signing the Co-operation Framework Agreement in May 2010 with the announced aim of obtaining fair distribution of the river quota between the different Nile Basin Countries. Addis Ababa objects to Egypt's quota of 55.5 billion cubic metres as been endorsed in 1959 agreement. Apparently the different agreements that gave Egypt the highest percentage of the river resources on the cost of other countries, were actually considering each countries' need of the water. How could one seek equal shares between a country that predominantly suffers dry weather and depends on the river by more than 90 per cent of its water resources with a country that is blessed by heavy rains to more than 185 days of the year? On the other hand it is unfair to the upstream countries, such as Ethiopia, not to enjoy the presence of the river to use for generating electricity from dams, especially with around 90 per cent of the Ethiopian people deprived of electricity. Therefore, this problem should be resolved between the two countries by working on reaching a new agreement, enabling Ethiopia to create its dam without adversely affecting the quota of the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan. It is hoped that the Presidency will hastily settle this conflict with Ethiopia by signing an agreement committing Addis Ababa's government to preserving Egypt's quota of the Nile water and having the project implemented under the supervision of Egyptian experts, especially given Egypt's good experience in the field. Similarly, Egypt should speedily carry out other significant projects on the river in co-operation with other upstream countries with the aim of enhancing Nile resources, such as the Jonglei Canal project with South Sudan.
