Addis Ababa: Egyptian officials tried to cool tensions with Ethiopia on Wednesday over the new Nile River dam project by highlighting its "neighborliness" as the Ethiopian prime minister`s spokesman insisted that nothing would stop the dam from being completed upstream from Egypt, which is wholly dependent on Nile River water.
Egypt fears a diminished flow from Africa`s largest dam and hydropower station but Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi said Egypt respects Ethiopia and will not engage in any aggressive acts against the East African nation. Egyptian politicians had suggested the country should sabotage the project in a meeting with the president Monday.
Getachew Reda, a spokesman for Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, said late yesterday that Egyptian leaders in the past have unsuccessfully tried to destabilise Ethiopia.
Ethiopia a week ago started diverting the flow of the Nile toward the USD 4.2 billion hydroelectric plant dubbed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. The project is about 20 per cent complete.
"The Renaissance Dam is here to stay. It is advisable for all actors of the political establishment in Egypt to come to terms with this reality," Getachew said in an interview.
Since Ethiopia announced it was going to build the dam in March 2011, it has insisted the water flow to Sudan and Egypt will not be affected. It has initiated a tripartite Egypt-Sudan-Ethiopia experts panel to study the impact of the dam.
The 10-man panel, which includes four international experts, submitted its report to the countries last weekend. Ethiopia`s Ministry of Water and Energy said the report concluded the dam "will not significantly affect" either Sudan or Egypt.
Egyptian political leaders on Monday met Mursi to discuss the report. Apparently unaware their discussion was being televised live, some of them proposed hostile acts including aiding rebels inside Ethiopia and destroying the dam itself. Ethiopian officials long have accused Egypt of backing anti-government rebels in Ethiopia. More than a dozen rebel groups exist in the East African nation, some wanting more autonomy, others a separate state.
"There are on the one hand people who still think that they can turn the clock back on Ethiopia`s development endeavors including of course the construction of the Renaissance Dam," said Getachew. "Second you have people like President Mohammed Mursi, who according to the reports, said to have stressed that there is no point in trying to force Ethiopians, but the best solution would be to engage to Ethiopians."
PTI
