Each year on Jan. 9, Egyptians celebrate the anniversary of the 1960 construction of the Aswan Dam, during the reign of late President Gamal Abdel Nasser. But this year’s 54th anniversary was quite different, tinged with fear about the dangerous effects that the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam — intended to be built on the Blue Nile — would have on the operations of the Aswan. The latter might be put out of commission for up to two years.
The Egyptian press substituted its hosting of surviving Aswan Dam builders and broadcasts of patriotic songs about its construction with discussions of the Renaissance Dam crisis and its deleterious effects on Egypt’s water supply, as well as its repercussions for the electricity output of the Aswan Dam. An emergency meeting of the Egyptian National Defense Council was convened under the leadership of interim President Adly Mansour to discuss the implications of the crisis and ways to minimize the Ethiopian dam’s negative effects on Egypt.