Abdel Fattah el‑Sisi

Built World

Leading Egypt's opposition to GERD, calling it an existential threat to Egyptian water security

Ethiopia flipped the switch on Africa's largest dam September 9, 2025, without Egypt's blessing. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam holds 74 billion cubic meters of water—enough to double Ethiopia's power output and, Egypt fears, strangle the Nile River that 107 million Egyptians depend on for nearly all their freshwater. Fourteen years of construction, funded almost entirely by Ethiopian citizens buying bonds and donating paychecks, delivered 5,150 megawatts of capacity. Egypt called it an existential threat and demanded a binding water-sharing treaty. Ethiopia built it anyway.

Updated Jan 7

Built World

Egypt’s government messaging shifted on 2025-12-18 toward depoliticizing the Leviathan supply arrangement, with the State Information Service calling it a strictly commercial deal concluded by private companies.

A day after Israel approved the Leviathan-to-Egypt export permit, Egypt’s State Information Service publicly stepped in to reframe the agreement as a strictly commercial arrangement concluded by private energy companies—an attempt to firewall the gas lifeline from Gaza-war politics.

Updated Dec 20, 2025