Hossam Mughazy, the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation denied media reports claiming that Ethiopia had started to fill the Renaissance Dam lake and block Egypt's Nile water.
"Current construction works at the Renaissance Dam do not make it able to reserve water," the minister said.
"The building of the dam has not been completed yet, so it is not able to reserve water technically," he said.
The minister said water that satellite photos showed in the lake was not Nile water.
"It was rainwater," he said.