CAIRO — Egypt is facing a fait accompli after its minister of water resources and irrigation, Mohamed Abdel Ati, announced Nov. 12 the failure of negotiations with Ethiopia and Sudan to agree on the most appropriate mechanism for filling and operating the Renaissance Dam without harming Egypt.

Egypt is concerned about the dam's potential negative effects on its water share of the Nile River — 55.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually, as stipulated in the 1929 and 1959 agreements. The Nile provides Egypt with about 97% of its total water needs, while the remaining 3% is supplied by low rainfall on the northern coast and in the Sinai Peninsula, and by non-renewable groundwater.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is furthering Egypt’s water concerns. In a phone interview on ONTV's show "Kol Youm" ("Every Day") on Nov. 13, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces' Engineering Authority, Kamel al-Wazir, said the biggest desalination plant in the world is under construction in Ain Sukhna with a production capacity of 164,000 cubic meters of water per day. He also referred to three other giant water plants each with a capacity of 150,000 cubic meters per day — located in al-Galala, east of Port Said governorate and the New El Alamein city.

Wazir noted that the stations on the northwest coast and in South Sinai purify 1 million cubic meters (mcm) of seawater per day, expecting a future increase of the production capacity of desalinated water. He added that a sewage and agricultural wastewater treatment plant is also under construction with a production capacity of 5 mcm per day in the eastern Suez Canal.