CAIRO - 12 August 2025: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stressed Egypt's complete rejection of unilateral measures in the Eastern Nile Basin, reiterating that anyone who believes Egypt will turn a blind eye to its water rights is "mistaken."
This came during President El-Sisi's speech at a joint press conference following talks with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
President El-Sisi explained that the Nile water issue was the subject of lengthy discussions with President Yoweri Museveni of the Republic of Uganda, emphasizing the importance of water and development for the Nile Basin countries. He added, "Egypt does not oppose any development for our partners in the Nile Basin countries, but Egypt's only concern is that this development does not affect the volume of water reaching Egypt."
President El-Sisi said in a joint press conference with his Ugandan counterpart at Al-Ittihadiya Palace today that the annual volume of water in the White and Blue Nile basins reaches 1,600 billion cubic meters, a large portion of which is lost to forests, swamps, evaporation, and groundwater, while only a small portion reaches the Nile.
President Sisi emphasized that Egypt is only talking about approximately 85 billion cubic meters, the share of Egypt and Sudan's share of the Nile water, which represents only about 4% of the total.
"We want to cooperate together to achieve stability for our country. Egypt has no other water resources and does not receive significant amounts of rainfall. If we give up this portion, it means we are giving up our lives," he added.
He also signaled that the water issue is being used as part of a broader campaign to pressure Egypt in pursuit of other objectives.
President Sisi reassured Egyptians saying: "We will never allow water to be tampered with, and we are counting on the people's awareness."
Tue, Aug. 12, 2025
