Egypt and Ethiopia are clashing over the Nile with the latter stating it will not accept Cairo’s proposal for the operation of the hydropower dam Addis Ababa is building on the Nile, calling Cairo's plan "inappropriate".

Instead Ethiopia intends to put forward a different proposal, according to Sileshi Bekele, the minister for water, irrigation and energy, Al Jazeera reported.

"The proposal from Egypt was unilaterally decided didn't consider our previous agreements," he said. "We can't agree with this, we will prepare our counter proposal, said Bekele.

In 2011 the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was designed to be the centre piece of Ethiopia's bid to become Africa's biggest power exporter, generating more than 6,000 megawatts.

However, the two countries have clashed over the amount of water that Egypt should receive annually and how to manage the flow during droughts.

Cairo wants GERD’s reservoir to release a higher volume of water than Addis Ababa will agree as Egypt relies on the Nile for 90 percent of its freshwater.