Egypt and Sudan threw accusations at each other over the Renaissance Dam issue during a conference titled “The Nile Basin: Cooperation or Confrontation” that was held in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
The Sudanese delegation, headed by former Irrigation Minister Seif Hamad, defended Ethiopia’s right to build the dam, although he had acknowledged before that the studies of the dam were not economically feasible.
Participants said Sudan defends the Ethiopian project more than Addis Ababa itself.
Hamad attacked Egypt, claiming that it is Cairo, and not the United States as claimed by the media, that supports South Sudan and seeks water projects with the government of Juba.
He added that Egypt has no expertise in the building modern dams, unlike Sudan that built four dams in 20 years.
Alaa Yassin, adviser to the Egyptian minister of irrigation, responded by saying that Egypt taught the Arab countries and the whole world how to build dams. “The Sudanese did not provide any studies on the Renaissance Dam, while Egypt provided technical studies on it,” he said.
Hamad also said that South Sudan is but a big swamp with lots of water, as 600 billion cubic meters of rain falls there every year, whereas it needs no more than three billion cubic meters in the coming 100 years. “They waste 52 billion cubic meters of water before it reaches the Sobat River, in addition to another 15 billion cubic meters in the Bahr al-Ghazal region and 10 billion cubic meters in the Sobat River Basin,” he said.
He said the Juba government cannot implement its plan to plant 400,000 acres unless it dries parts of the swamps, which means additional water to the White Nile quantities that Egypt can benefit from, given Egyptian support to South Sudan.
Maghawri Shehata, an international expert in water, said it is Israel and not Egypt that helps South Sudan, adding that Egypt is forced to deal with South Sudan only in order to secure the Nile water needs of Khartoum and Cairo in light of the new Renaissance Dam project. “Egypt is committed to the 1959 Convention because it protects the interests of both countries,” he said.
Hany Raslan of the Al-Ahram Center for Political Studies was surprised that Sudan was defending Ethiopia. “Ethiopia made the Entebbe Convention to threaten the quotas of Egypt and Sudan,” he said, adding that Etiopia made use of the political situation in Egypt after the revolution and started to build the dam in April 2011. “Addis Ababa is stalling negotiations so that it finishes the dam and makes it an ipso facto.”
“Ethiopia is leading a campaign against Egypt in order to raise funds for the dam and unify the nationalities and ethnic groups that make up its government,” he said. “And the United States is behind of all it.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
