Professor of Geology and Water Resources at the Cairo University Abbas Sharaky said that Ethiopia has been exposed to earthquakes for the fifth time in a row, with the latest measuring 4.9 on Richter scale on Sunday.
It hit at 8:10 pm Cairo time, with a depth of 10 km, roughly 560 km from the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam.
Sharaky explained that the earthquake occurred near the four earthquakes that occurred on September 27 and 30 in the Ethiopian Rift Valley (the Great African Rift Valley), the most seismically active region on the African continent.
The Professor of Geology confirmed that seismic activity in Ethiopia has increased threefold over the past three years, from five to ten earthquakes annually during 2014-2020, to 38 earthquakes in 2023, the most severe of which measured 5.6.
There have been 20 earthquakes so far in 2024, he added.
He expected that seismic activity in Ethiopia, especially in the GERD area, will continue to increase after the filling was completed at about 60 billion m3, due to the weight of the lake reservoir at 60 billion tons, and 150 million tons of the weight of the two main dams and the saddle dam.
Sharaky also predicted that the leakage from part of the GERD through the connected ground cracks in most Ethiopian land would lead to more landslides, and thus further earthquakes.
‘There will be no leniency’
Tensions have risen between Cairo and Addis Ababa after the failure of all negotiations over the Nile River waters due to the GERD project.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel-Aati stressed in September that there will be no leniency, tolerance or concession regarding the Nile River’s water, as it is an existential issue directly related to Egyptian national security.
He stressed that not a single drop of Nile water can be squandered, because what his country is getting now is not enough.
Earlier in September, Abdel-Aati addressed a letter to the President of the United Nations Security Council rejecting the recent statements of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed regarding the fifth phase of filling GERD.
The letter renewed Egypt’s categorical rejection of Ethiopian unilateral policies that violate the rules and principles of international law, and constitute a clear violation of the Declaration of Principles agreement and the Presidential Statement of the Security Council on September 15, 2021.
He added that Ethiopia seeks to legitimize its unilateral policies that contradict international law, and hide behind baseless claims that these policies are based on the right of peoples to development.
