During his meeting with Inger Anderson, Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Egyptian Minister of Ri, Mohamed Abdel Ati, revealed new irregularities committed by Ethiopia against Egypt and the Sudan, other than the start of the second filling of the Nahda dam.

Egyptian Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdul Ati said that Ethiopia had no political will to sign a binding agreement on the Nahda Dam or to resolve the dam crisis and was always trying to evade any commitment.

Those irregularities had been the release, during November, of large quantities of water loaded with silt by Addis Ababa, without informing Egypt and the Sudan, which had caused major water purity problems, thus causing considerable hardship to the water drinking plants in the Sudan.

Abdel Ati reviewed the Egyptian water situation, the magnitude of the challenges facing Egypt's water sector, primarily the limited availability of water resources, the negative impacts of climate change and the unilateral actions of the Ethiopian side in filling and operating the Renaissance Dam.

Egypt was one of the world's driest countries, suffering from a shortage of water resources, while Ethiopia enjoyed enormous water resources, such as rainwater, renewable groundwater and other river basins, unlike the Nile River and large quantities of water stored with dams and natural lakes.

The Egyptian Minister stressed that Cairo was not against development in Ethiopia or the Nile Basin States, but that development projects must be implemented in accordance with the rules of international law, taking into account the concerns of the downstream States.

Egypt had already assisted the source States of the Nile Basin in building dams in a cooperative and consensual manner. Egypt should seek cooperation with Ethiopia through a just and binding legal agreement to fill and operate the Ethiopian Dam, in the interest of all.

He said that Egypt had shown flexibility in negotiating, but had been met with great intransigence on the Ethiopian side, since Ethiopia did not have the political will to reach an agreement and always sought to evade any commitment to the downstream States.

Abd Al-Ati listed the effects of Ethiopian unilateral acts on both Egypt and the Sudan, especially if filling or operation coincided with droughts.

He spoke of the serious damage suffered by the Sudan as a result of the unilateral filling last year, which had caused the Sudan to suffer a severe drought, followed by a massive flood, because the Ethiopian side had carried out the first filling without coordination with the two downstream States.

n the same vein, Inger Anderson said that the Secretary-General of the United Nations had emphasized the readiness of the United Nations to participate on the African Union track, to work to support the negotiations to block the renaissance if requested by the three States.

Egypt and the Sudan had requested the inclusion of international actors such as: The African Union, the United Nations, the European Union and the United States of America to advance the path of negotiation are of global concern.

It will be recalled that on Thursday, 8 July, the United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis of the Nahda Dam, which will be attended by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Sudanese counterpart, Maryam Sadiq Al-Mahdi.

Yesterday, the Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation announced that Minister Mohamed Abdel Ati had received a formal address from his Ethiopian counterpart to begin the second filling of the Nahda dam reservoir, noting that Cairo had sent an official address to Ethiopia to notify it of its unequivocal rejection of this unilateral measure.

The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abe Ahmed, had said that his country did not want to fight with anyone over closing the renaissance or other issues, unless there was a clear threat to Ethiopia, explaining to the Ethiopian Parliament that Ethiopia was seeking peace and development, and would work towards that through cooperation.