Egypt rejects Ethiopian dam storage capacity

Egypt reiterated its rejection of the current height and storage capacity of Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam currently standing at 74 billion cubic meters as it undermines Egypt's water security, an Egyptian official said.
Speaking to MENA, adviser of the water resources minister and spokesman of the dam file Alaa Yassin called on Ethiopia to reduce the storage capacity to safe limits before negotiating the dam's filling and operation years.
Egypt is committed to the agreements reached during meetings of the water resources ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia that were held in Khartoum in August, he said.
"We hope other sides commit to the agreements as well without procrastination or wasting time while going on with the dam construction," the official said.
He revealed difficulties facing technical consultations among the three countries, saying he hopes a date will be set soon to receive financial and technical offers from the five consultancy firms to carry out studies on the impact of the dam on Egypt in terms of water flow, and environmental, economic and social aspects.
Egypt backs the right of Nile basin countries to carry out electricity generation projects but without harming Egypt's historical and fixed share of the Nile water, he said.
Egypt rejects the dam's current height and magnificent storage capacity of 74 billion cubic meters, which Egypt finds technically unacceptable, he said.
Egypt wants the height and storage capacity to be reduced first before starting the next step which is negotiating the dam's operation policy and filling, he concluded.