Cairo: Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi, facing growing discontent at home, has warned “all options are open” for his country in dealing with a threat posed to its water sufficiency by a controversial Ethiopian dam.
“We will never allow Egypt’s water security to be infringed,” Mursi told a televised gathering in Cairo Monday night. “All options are open for us to deal with this. If a single drop of the Nile water is lost, our blood will be the alternative,” he added, drawing a standing ovation from the audience, mainly his Islamist allies.
Egyptians have been increasingly worried since last month when Ethiopia started diverting the Nile to build the Grand Renaissance Dam, which experts say will seriously endanger Egypt’s water share and electricity generation. The Nile supplies Egypt, a country of 85 million people, of more than 80 per cent of its water needs.
“We are not propagators of war, but we will not allow our water security threatened,” said Mursi.
Last week, Egyptian politicians, attending a televised meeting with Mursi on the issue, suggested bombing the Ethiopian dam or assisting rebels there.
Egypt has said it will send its foreign minister soon to Addis Ababa for talks on the dam, which Ethiopia confirms will not harm Egypt’s water share.
“Whoever thinks that Egypt will be distracted from protecting its security is living in illusions,” Mursi said Monday.
The Ethiopian project, announced following a visit by Mursi to Addis Ababa, has come to deepen domestic problems for the Islamist president whom the opposition accuses of being incompetent.
The opposition plans massive protests on June 30, which marks the first anniversary of Mursi in office.
In his Monday night address, Mursi appeared keen to use Egyptians’ concerns over Ethiopia’s hydraulic dam to build unity.
“I call on everyone to leave behind partisan differences and political disputes at this stage to protect Egypt and its people and weather challenges,” he said.
A protest petition campaign is vigorously collecting signatures across Egypt to pressure Mursi into stepping down and calling for early presidential elections.
“I call for comprehensive national reconciliation at this time when the nation demands us to be united.”
Mursi, whose term in office ends in 2016, said he was ready to go to the opposition and meet its leaders “individually or in groups”.
The secular-minded opposition has spurned pervious bids for talks with Mursi, accusing him of acting at his Muslim Brotherhood group’s command.
