(Updates with water ministry statement)
By Aidan Lewis
CAIRO, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Egypt says Ethiopia has"summarily rejected" its plan for key aspects of operating agiant dam the East African nation is building on the Nile, whiledismissing Ethiopia's own proposal as "unfair and inequitable".
The comments in a note circulated to diplomats last weekshow the gap between the two countries on a project seen as anexistential threat by Egypt, which gets around 90% of its freshwater from the Nile.
The note distributed by the Egyptian foreign ministry, acopy of which was seen by Reuters, points to key differencesover the annual flow of water that should be guaranteed to Egyptand how to manage flows during droughts.
It comes as Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan met on Sunday andMonday for their first talks over the hydroelectric dam in morethan a year. A spokesperson at Ethiopia's foreignministry, Nebiat Getachew, said on Monday the meeting had so farproduced no agreements or disagreements, and gave no immediateresponse to the Egyptian claims.
Egyptian officials were not immediately available forcomment, but after the talks an Egyptian water ministrystatement carried by local media said the meeting had beenlimited to procedural rather than substantive issues.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has expressed uneasein recent days over delays in negotiations.
The $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) wasannounced in 2011 and is designed to be the centrepiece ofEthiopia's bid to become Africa's biggest power exporter,generating more than 6,000 megawatts.
In January, Ethiopia's water and energy minister said thatfollowing construction delays, the dam would start production bythe end of 2020 and be fully operational by 2022.
The dam promises economic benefits for Ethiopia and Sudan,but Egypt fears it will restrict already stretched supplies fromthe Nile, which it uses for drinking water, agriculture andindustry.
DEADLOCK
Though nationalist, and sometimes belligerent, rhetoricbetween Egypt and Ethiopia has cooled in recent years, the sideshave remained deadlocked.
A report from International Crisis Group earlier this yearwarned that Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan could "blunder into acrisis if they do not strike a bargain before the GERD beginsoperation".
Egypt says it shared its proposal for filling and operatingthe dam with Ethiopia and Sudan on July 31 and Aug. 1, invitingboth countries for a meeting of foreign and water ministers.
"Unfortunately, in a letter dated August 12, 2019, Ethiopiasummarily rejected Egypt's proposal and declined to attend thesix-party meeting," the Egyptian government's note said.
Ethiopia had instead proposed a meeting of water ministersto discuss a document that included an Ethiopian proposal from2018, it said.
Both proposals agree that the first of five phases forfilling the dam should take two years, at the end of which theGERD's reservoir in Ethiopia would be filled to 595 metres andall the dam's hydropower turbines would become operational.
But the Egyptian proposal says that if this first phasecoincides with an extreme drought on Ethiopia's Blue Nile,similar to that experienced in 1979-1980, then the two-yearperiod should be extended to keep the water level at Egypt'sHigh Aswan Dam from dropping below 165 metres.
Without such a concession, Egypt says it would risk losingmore than one million jobs and $1.8 billion in economic outputannually, as well as electricity valued at $300 million.
After the first stage of filling, Egypt's proposal requiresa minimum annual release of 40 billion cubic metres of waterfrom the GERD, while Ethiopia suggests 35 bcm, according to theEgyptian note.
The note cites Ethiopia as saying last month that Egypt'sproposal "put(s) the dam filling in an impossible condition", acharge Egypt dismisses.
"The Ethiopian proposal ... overwhelmingly favours Ethiopiaand is extremely prejudicial to the interests of downstreamstates," it says.(Editing by Ulf Laessing and Giles Elgood)