Friday, March 28, 2014

Egypt considers referring Renaissance Dam file to The Hague - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East



A general view shows construction activity on the Grand Renaissance Dam in Guba Woreda, Benishangul Gumuz region, March 16, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri)


The Specialized National Councils in Egypt filed an important report to the presidency, including a study about referring the issue of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam to the International Court of Justice for arbitration. The report was prepared in Egypt by a team of experts in law and international arbitration led by Mufid Shehab. Shehab was part of the international Taba arbitration tribunal, through which Egypt succeeded in recovering the town in 1988.
SUMMARY⎙ PRINTEgypt’s Specialized National Councils have filed a report to the Egyptian presidency about referring the case of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam dispute to international organizations, since the negotiations between Egypt and Ethiopia have reached a deadlock.
AUTHORWalaa HusseinPOSTEDMarch 26, 2014

TRANSLATOR(S)Steffi Chakti
The report, which is still under examination, included a comprehensive study that was prepared in the same way the file of Taba was prepared. The study documents the damage that would be inflicted on Egypt as a result of the construction of the Renaissance Dam and examines the stance of Ethiopia, which contradicts international law and United Nationsprinciples. The report would be filed by the Egyptian government to the UN General Assembly, which would decide whether to present it to the UN Security Council or refer it to the International Court of Justice.
Hani Reslan, head of the Sudan and Nile Basin Unit at the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor, “The study does not include the issue of direct referral to arbitration through the International Court of Justice, since [arbitration] requires a mutual consent from both parties, and it is unlikely for Ethiopia to accept it. This is why the report will be filed to the UN to be later referred upon its order to the International Court of Justice, in case the presidency decided to put the case in motion.” Reslan participated in a closed workshop with the team that prepared the study under the leadership of Shehab.
For his part, former Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Nasser Eldin Allam told Al-Monitor, “The charters of the UN and the African Union stipulate the peaceful settlement of conflicts. Technical negotiations failed; what is now available is accepting mediation with Ethiopia to build a smaller dam, form a fact-finding committee, choose countries to arbitrate between [Egypt] and Ethiopia or refer to the International Court of Justice.”
Allam said, “In case all the aforementioned solutions are refused, Egypt has the right to resort to international organizations to stop the funding of the dam since there is a conflict. This can be done by presenting a memorandum to the UN affirming the historical rights of Egypt.”
“Egypt can also demand the UN and all its organizations stop the funding of the dam and issue a legal resolution drafted by the International Court of Justice regarding this conflict. The Egyptian government has also the right to go to the UN Security Council to stress that this dam poses a threat to regional peace and security, as it threatens the future of an entire people,” Allam added.
He also noted, “No state can remain silent regarding risks threatening the people. Therefore, we ought to take all the necessary international measures against Ethiopia, and we hope that the Security Council will consider our case, which represents a thirst crisis for 90 million Egyptians. According to Chapters VI and VII of the UN Charter, the Egyptian government has the right to resort to all means to put an end to this crisis. Thus, it has the right to take advantage of regional alliances, use soft power and threaten interests. All this is allowed under international law.”
A well-informed government source told Al-Monitor that the decision of the Specialized National Councils to recommend the referral of the matter to the UN was not supposed to be currently revealed, especially since this step was ostensibly put on hold and waiting for a decision within the presidency. This is not to mention the current circumstances Egypt is going through, as the presidential team was expected to study the case so it can be settled with the next president who will be elected in Egypt.
The source confirmed that the government of new Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb suggested to the presidency that a new round of negotiations be held with the Ethiopian side; the government of previous Prime Minister Hazem el-Biblawi had decided to escalate matters at international levels through visits to many countries and by exerting pressure to stop the funding of the dam and disrupt its construction. This suggestion also included an idea put forth by Mehleb, which is based on the principle of energy for water. This is a new initiative that will be proposed to the government of Addis Ababa, with its details to be revealed shortly afterward.
Egypt has internationalized the issue of the dam, but will it reach the International Court of Justice? This is the question that presents itself in light of the transitional phase Egypt is going through, where decision-makers are preoccupied with the presidential elections that are in the offing.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

State Information Services Egypt explains its stance over Renaissance Dam


Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Foreign Ministry sent a formal document to all Egyptian embassies abroad about Egypt's stance over Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam.

The Egyptian embassies are asked to contact foreign governments and media outlets to clarify the Egyptian stance over the controversial dam, said spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Badr Abdel Atti in statements on Tuesday 25/3/2014.

The document underlined Egypt's firm position on the Nile water file, which is based on the principles of mutual benefit among all parties.

The Ethiopian side does not provide any information about the dam, Abdel Atti said.

Ethiopia recognized the negative effects of the dam on the downstream states, although it previously announced that the dam would not affect the downstream states, Abdel Atti said.

The negotiations are necessary in order to avoid any serious developments that might affect Egypt's national security, he added.



MENA

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Ethiopia approves new deal on Nile River dam project -PressTV -




Ethiopia’s parliament has approved a measure to push ahead with its Nile River dam project while changing a colonial-era deal that gave Egypt and Sudan majority stake in the great river.





Ethiopia’s 547-member parliament unanimously agreed on Thursday to ratify the Nile River Cooperative Framework Agreement, which states that a committee must be established to oversee Nile projects - including the controversial $4.7-billion hydroelectric dam in Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, Egyptian lawmakers fear the new dam will diminish their share of the Nile, which provides the desert nation almost all of its water needs.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has vowed that no one will stop the building of the multi-billion-dollar energy project, which is diverting the flow of the river.

A ten-man panel of experts has found that the dam will not significantly affect Egypt or Sudan.

The Nile River Cooperative Framework Agreement was made to replace the 1929 British treaty that awarded Egypt veto power over Nile projects.

In 1959, Sudan and Egypt signed a contract that divided the Nile waters between them, while disregarding the rights of other countries. Egypt faces a water crisis as its population increases.

In the 1960s, the average water share per person was 2,800 cubic meters. Now, the figure has dropped to 600 cubic meters, much below the poverty line, which is 1,000 cubic meters per person.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Ethiopia Sees Output at Africa’s Biggest Power Plant by 2015 (1) - Businessweek


March 20, 2014

Ethiopia will begin generating electricity within 18 months from what will be Africa’s largest power plant, the government said.
The sale of 7.1 billion birr ($367 million) of bonds over the past three years to domestic investors, has contributed to the 27 billion birr spent so far on the 75.5 billion birr Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam hydropower project, said Zadig Abraha, deputy general director of the GERD national coordination office. The central bank in April 2011 ordered banks to buy government bonds equivalent to 27 percent of their loans to help fund infrastructure projects.
Ethiopia’s funding of the 6,000-megawatt plant represents “the golden age of our history as far as economic development and public participation is concerned,” Zadig said by phone on March 18 from the capital, Addis Ababa. “If we’re to meet the power demand we have to construct these mega projects.”
Africa’s second-most populous country after Nigeria is boosting electricity output to cater for increased demand as economic growth surges. The economy expanded at an average 9.3 percent over the past four years and the government is targeting growth of more than 10 percent, which may lead to annual increases in electricity demand of as much as 35 percent, Zadig said.
An increase in Ethiopia’s current generating capacity of 2,000 megawatts will also allow the country to reduce a trade deficit of $8.5 billion last year by selling excess electricity.

Power Exports

The government already exports power to Sudan and Djibouti. It’s also building a transmission line to Kenya and is in discussions with Yemen and war-torn South Sudan, Zadig said. Once GERD is finished, and other hydropower projects including the 1,870-megawatt Gibe III are on line, Ethiopia may earn $2 billion a year from the exports, he said.
The construction of GERD is opposed by Egypt, which says it will reduce the flow of the Nile, the world’s longest river that provides almost all its water. Egypt’s opposition to the project blocked Ethiopia’s access to foreign credit, he said.
“The only option on the table was to construct the dam by our own capacity,” Zadig said, adding that the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power Corp. and public contributions would fund the rest of the project.
Sudan, the other affected nation, supports the project that’s scheduled for completion in 2018, partly because it will allow the country to import cheaper Ethiopian electricity. The dam is being built 18 miles (30 kilometers) from the Sudanese border on the Blue Nile River, the main tributary of the Nile.

Production Start

Two turbines at the plant will start producing 750 megawatts of power during the Ethiopian calendar year that begins Sept. 11, depending on rainfall patterns, Zadig said.
In 2012, Ethiopia invited an international panel of experts to study the project, which the government says will help curb flooding and improve water storage.
The panel concluded in June that further assessments need to be made on GERD’s regional impact. It also advised modifications to the design to strengthen it structurally. Efforts by Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to form a committee to oversee the probes on the downstream effects have reached an impasse over the role of foreign experts.
Egypt wants construction paused while the studies are done on an issue that is a matter of “national security,” Badr Abdelatty, a spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, said in a phone interview on March 15.

‘Serious’ Talks

“We ask upon the other side to be serious and to move forward to accept having international experts imported to assess the impact,” he said. “Also for Ethiopians to provide more studies, more statistics.”
Ethiopia should also respect colonial-era agreements and a 1959 accord between Sudan and Egypt that allocates all of the river’s flow excluding evaporation to those two nations, Abdelatty said. By 2020, Egypt will require all of its assigned 55 billion cubic meters a year for vital use such as drinking, washing and sanitation, he said.
Nile riparian nations including Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda are in the process of ratifying a new agreement to create a joint commission to manage use of the river.
To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa at wdavison3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net Karl Maier

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Grand Designs North Africa Impact of Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam - WaterWorld


Grand Designs North Africa
If successful, a new mega dam project on the Nile could hold 63 billion cubic meters of water to reinvigorate Ethiopia. Yet downstream of the river, Egypt could see the flow stopped to its 55 billion cubic metres a year share it has relied upon to build the country. Is this the start of water-wars?
By Jeremy Josephs
It was in the colonial-era 1959 when Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser successfully negotiated the Nile Waters Agreement between Egypt and Sudan. The signing weighted massively in his country's favour, allocating almost three-quarters of the Nile's waters to Egypt.
Many a commentator has pointed out that without the waters of the Nile there would have been no food, no state, no historical monuments and no pyramids – in short, no Egypt.
Fast forward almost 60 years and a major project in the region could have major implications on the agreement. For the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, due for completion in 2017, is set to change both the geo and hydro politics of the Blue Nile River.
With the Nile being synonymous with Egypt's very heart and soul it comes as no surprise that the country's leaders might look with some displeasure at the project.
Which no doubt helps to explain the words of the late President Sadat, Nasser's successor, when he said that "any action that would endanger the waters of the Blue Nile will be faced with a firm reaction on the part of Egypt, even if that action should lead to war".
The nation state upon which Egyptian wrath is currently being vented is the impoverished but emerging Ethiopia. While Egypt does not share a border with Ethiopia – one of the most populated landlocked country in the world - yet it does share the Nile.
In fact Ethiopia was not at all impressed with the 1959 Agreement. It allocated Egypt 55.5 billion cubic meters of water annually while Sudan was allowed 18.5. Those 79 billion cubic meters represented no less than 99% of the calculated average annual river flow.

Egypt's industrialisation

The treaty also allowed for the construction of the Aswan High Dam, which was duly completed in 1970, and now stands proudly across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt. Its ability to control floods, provide water for irrigation and generate hydroelectricity has been so successful that it is rightly recognised as being pivotal to Egypt's industrialization. Egyptians celebrate the anniversary of its construction on January 9th of each year.
As part of the 1959 agreement, Egypt takes 55.5 billion cubic meters of water annually while Sudan takes18.5
As part of the 1959 agreement, Egypt takes 55.5 billion cubic meters of water annually while Sudan takes18.5
Ethiopia saw it differently. Emperor Haile Selassie was so offended by Nasser's exclusion of Ethiopia from the 1959 agreement that he organised a divorce of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from the Orthodox Church in Alexandria, ending some 1600 years of institutional marriage.
As the former Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi once protested: "While Egypt is taking the Nile water to transform the Sahara Desert into something green, we in Ethiopia – who are the source of 85% of that water – are denied the possibility of using it to feed ourselves."
Such a plea did not change Egypt's thoughts on the matter, nor the flow of the Nile. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam however – as its name implies – is likely to do precisely that.
Students at Good Hope Academy in Southern Sudan
Students at Good Hope Academy in Southern Sudan
Grand proposals, grand reservoiR Based in Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz region, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth $4.7 billion was awarded to the private Rome-based mega-project company Salini Costruttori. Now almost 25% complete, at 6,000 MW dam will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa and its reservoir at 63 billion cubic meters will be one of the continent's largest too.
The dam will be a roller-compacted concrete (CRC) gravity-type comprising two power stations, three spillways and a saddle dam. It will be 150m in height and 1,800m in length and also serve as a bridge across the Blue Nile. Some 12,000 jobs have been or will be created directly and indirectly.
Ethiopia president Dr Mulatu Teshome (middle). Regulated flow from the dam is hoped to improve agriculture in the country
Ethiopia president Dr Mulatu Teshome (middle). Regulated flow from the dam is hoped to improve agriculture in the country
Owned by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCO), financed by Ethiopia and China, it is aimed primarily at generating power but will also be capable of handling a flood of 19,370 m//second. The regulated flow of water from the dam is hoped to improve agriculture in Ethiopia - a country which has suffered repeatedly and recently from droughts and famines alike - in addition to reducing about 40 km of flooding in neighbouring Sudan.
In fact in the autumn of 2012 the international press reported on a Wikileaks document acquired from the Texas security company Stratfor, revealing Egyptian plans to build an airstrip for bombing the dam – reports which were of course promptly denied in Cairo.
While Mohammad Morsi is no longer in power - having done a 'reverse Mandela' in going from President to prisoner - in June of last year he was party to a discussion about the International Panel of Experts report on the dam with Egyptian political leaders.
Here it again suggested that methods of destroying the dam be considered, including support for anti-government rebels. Had this discussion remained private that might have been the end of the matter. Yet, unbeknown to those attending, the discussions on the various options were being broadcast live on national TV.
Morsi's top aide promptly apologised for any "unintended embarrassment" and issued a press release in which words such as "good neighbourliness" and "mutual respect" were used. The trouble for Egyptian is that it has come to find itself increasingly isolated. For Sudan has switched sides and chosen to support the dam.
Harry Verhoeven, who teaches African politics at the University of Oxford, points out that Sudan understands that the dam is "in its interests, not least because it will be able to import the cheap energy it desperately needs."
Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir has announced his support for the project: "backing the dam project is not a political stance, but rather a belief in its benefits for all Nile Basin states," he claims.
Egypt's reluctance to join in the celebrations of these shifting sands of regional alliances is understandable enough.

Environmental impacts

Alaa al-Zawahiri, a member of the Egyptian National Panel of Experts studying the effects of the Renaissance Dam says that Ethiopia's construction of a dam able to hold 74 billion cubic meters of water was a catastrophe for his country, which would end up losing 60% of its agricultural land.
And he adds, almost in passing, that a collapse of the Renaissance Dam could in turn lead to the collapse of the Aswan Dam, in effect devastating the whole of Egypt. Questions have also been asked over what will happen while the reservoir behind the dam is filling up, when water flow may be reduced by 25% for three years or more? And once it is filled what will happen when rains fall in the Ethiopian highlands? Who will get the water first? Whose hand is on the tap? If the dam is successful, then it will be Ethiopia's.
Another challenge will be population growth. The question of control over the Nile waters has been sensitive in previous centuries when Egypt's population was 10 million or less. So if the country's population grows to ten times this amount, such a question is likely to become more prominent. Help might not be at hand from other African nations.
Indeed some analysts consider that Egypt is now paying the price for having been so preoccupied with attempting to secure its dominant position in the Arab world.
Uganda's president, Yoweri Musevini, for one, has little time for the Egyptian predicament: "Egypt cannot continue to hurt black Africa and the countries of the tropics of Africa", no doubt mindful of old treaties which excluded the likes of Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania – not to mention his own country – from enjoying the benefit of the Nile's waters which also originate on their lands.
There might not be any easy answer to the thorny issue as to who owns the Nile but what is clear that the days of Egypt's almost monopoly like enjoyment of it are finally coming to a close. "Egypt needs to wake up to the new world", the University of Oxford's Verhoeven argues.
It's a painful awakening, for sure. How painful that is going to be is, of course, for the Egyptian government and people to decide.
Geostrategist Brahman Chellaney published his book "Water, Peace and War" last year. One can only hope and pray that as competition for this precious resource continues to grow that all stakeholders – in Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt and elsewhere – will come to embrace the water part of this title.

Grand Designs North Africa Impact of Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam - WaterWorld


Grand Designs North Africa
If successful, a new mega dam project on the Nile could hold 63 billion cubic meters of water to reinvigorate Ethiopia. Yet downstream of the river, Egypt could see the flow stopped to its 55 billion cubic metres a year share it has relied upon to build the country. Is this the start of water-wars?
By Jeremy Josephs
It was in the colonial-era 1959 when Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser successfully negotiated the Nile Waters Agreement between Egypt and Sudan. The signing weighted massively in his country's favour, allocating almost three-quarters of the Nile's waters to Egypt.
Many a commentator has pointed out that without the waters of the Nile there would have been no food, no state, no historical monuments and no pyramids – in short, no Egypt.
Fast forward almost 60 years and a major project in the region could have major implications on the agreement. For the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, due for completion in 2017, is set to change both the geo and hydro politics of the Blue Nile River.
With the Nile being synonymous with Egypt's very heart and soul it comes as no surprise that the country's leaders might look with some displeasure at the project.
Which no doubt helps to explain the words of the late President Sadat, Nasser's successor, when he said that "any action that would endanger the waters of the Blue Nile will be faced with a firm reaction on the part of Egypt, even if that action should lead to war".
The nation state upon which Egyptian wrath is currently being vented is the impoverished but emerging Ethiopia. While Egypt does not share a border with Ethiopia – one of the most populated landlocked country in the world - yet it does share the Nile.
In fact Ethiopia was not at all impressed with the 1959 Agreement. It allocated Egypt 55.5 billion cubic meters of water annually while Sudan was allowed 18.5. Those 79 billion cubic meters represented no less than 99% of the calculated average annual river flow.

Egypt's industrialisation

The treaty also allowed for the construction of the Aswan High Dam, which was duly completed in 1970, and now stands proudly across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt. Its ability to control floods, provide water for irrigation and generate hydroelectricity has been so successful that it is rightly recognised as being pivotal to Egypt's industrialization. Egyptians celebrate the anniversary of its construction on January 9th of each year.
As part of the 1959 agreement, Egypt takes 55.5 billion cubic meters of water annually while Sudan takes18.5
As part of the 1959 agreement, Egypt takes 55.5 billion cubic meters of water annually while Sudan takes18.5
Ethiopia saw it differently. Emperor Haile Selassie was so offended by Nasser's exclusion of Ethiopia from the 1959 agreement that he organised a divorce of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from the Orthodox Church in Alexandria, ending some 1600 years of institutional marriage.
As the former Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi once protested: "While Egypt is taking the Nile water to transform the Sahara Desert into something green, we in Ethiopia – who are the source of 85% of that water – are denied the possibility of using it to feed ourselves."
Such a plea did not change Egypt's thoughts on the matter, nor the flow of the Nile. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam however – as its name implies – is likely to do precisely that.
Students at Good Hope Academy in Southern Sudan
Students at Good Hope Academy in Southern Sudan
Grand proposals, grand reservoiR Based in Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz region, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth $4.7 billion was awarded to the private Rome-based mega-project company Salini Costruttori. Now almost 25% complete, at 6,000 MW dam will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa and its reservoir at 63 billion cubic meters will be one of the continent's largest too.
The dam will be a roller-compacted concrete (CRC) gravity-type comprising two power stations, three spillways and a saddle dam. It will be 150m in height and 1,800m in length and also serve as a bridge across the Blue Nile. Some 12,000 jobs have been or will be created directly and indirectly.
Ethiopia president Dr Mulatu Teshome (middle). Regulated flow from the dam is hoped to improve agriculture in the country
Ethiopia president Dr Mulatu Teshome (middle). Regulated flow from the dam is hoped to improve agriculture in the country
Owned by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCO), financed by Ethiopia and China, it is aimed primarily at generating power but will also be capable of handling a flood of 19,370 m//second. The regulated flow of water from the dam is hoped to improve agriculture in Ethiopia - a country which has suffered repeatedly and recently from droughts and famines alike - in addition to reducing about 40 km of flooding in neighbouring Sudan.
In fact in the autumn of 2012 the international press reported on a Wikileaks document acquired from the Texas security company Stratfor, revealing Egyptian plans to build an airstrip for bombing the dam – reports which were of course promptly denied in Cairo.
While Mohammad Morsi is no longer in power - having done a 'reverse Mandela' in going from President to prisoner - in June of last year he was party to a discussion about the International Panel of Experts report on the dam with Egyptian political leaders.
Here it again suggested that methods of destroying the dam be considered, including support for anti-government rebels. Had this discussion remained private that might have been the end of the matter. Yet, unbeknown to those attending, the discussions on the various options were being broadcast live on national TV.
Morsi's top aide promptly apologised for any "unintended embarrassment" and issued a press release in which words such as "good neighbourliness" and "mutual respect" were used. The trouble for Egyptian is that it has come to find itself increasingly isolated. For Sudan has switched sides and chosen to support the dam.
Harry Verhoeven, who teaches African politics at the University of Oxford, points out that Sudan understands that the dam is "in its interests, not least because it will be able to import the cheap energy it desperately needs."
Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir has announced his support for the project: "backing the dam project is not a political stance, but rather a belief in its benefits for all Nile Basin states," he claims.
Egypt's reluctance to join in the celebrations of these shifting sands of regional alliances is understandable enough.

Environmental impacts

Alaa al-Zawahiri, a member of the Egyptian National Panel of Experts studying the effects of the Renaissance Dam says that Ethiopia's construction of a dam able to hold 74 billion cubic meters of water was a catastrophe for his country, which would end up losing 60% of its agricultural land.
And he adds, almost in passing, that a collapse of the Renaissance Dam could in turn lead to the collapse of the Aswan Dam, in effect devastating the whole of Egypt. Questions have also been asked over what will happen while the reservoir behind the dam is filling up, when water flow may be reduced by 25% for three years or more? And once it is filled what will happen when rains fall in the Ethiopian highlands? Who will get the water first? Whose hand is on the tap? If the dam is successful, then it will be Ethiopia's.
Another challenge will be population growth. The question of control over the Nile waters has been sensitive in previous centuries when Egypt's population was 10 million or less. So if the country's population grows to ten times this amount, such a question is likely to become more prominent. Help might not be at hand from other African nations.
Indeed some analysts consider that Egypt is now paying the price for having been so preoccupied with attempting to secure its dominant position in the Arab world.
Uganda's president, Yoweri Musevini, for one, has little time for the Egyptian predicament: "Egypt cannot continue to hurt black Africa and the countries of the tropics of Africa", no doubt mindful of old treaties which excluded the likes of Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania – not to mention his own country – from enjoying the benefit of the Nile's waters which also originate on their lands.
There might not be any easy answer to the thorny issue as to who owns the Nile but what is clear that the days of Egypt's almost monopoly like enjoyment of it are finally coming to a close. "Egypt needs to wake up to the new world", the University of Oxford's Verhoeven argues.
It's a painful awakening, for sure. How painful that is going to be is, of course, for the Egyptian government and people to decide.
Geostrategist Brahman Chellaney published his book "Water, Peace and War" last year. One can only hope and pray that as competition for this precious resource continues to grow that all stakeholders – in Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt and elsewhere – will come to embrace the water part of this title.

Will Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam dry the Nile in Egypt? BBC


View of the grand Renaissance dam


Related Stories

Ethiopia is pressing ahead with construction of a major new dam on the River Nile, despite stiff opposition from Egypt. BBC correspondents in both countries report from both sides of an increasingly bitter water dispute.
Emmanuel Igunza, Ethiopia

A vast section of northern Ethiopia has been turned into a giant building site.
Construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (known as Gerd) is now about 30% complete.
The whole project spans an area of 1,800 sq km (695 sq miles).


Once completed, in three years, it will be Africa's largest hydropower dam, standing some 170m (558ft) tall.
At a cost of $4.7bn (£2.9bn) it will also be hugely expensive - mostly funded by Ethiopian bonds and taxpayers.
The dam is located in the Benishangul region, a vast, arid land on the border with Sudan, some 900km north-west of the capital Addis Ababa,
Temperatures here can get as high as 48C (118F). Most of the vegetation that existed on the dam site has been cleared to make way for the construction, and the area is now extremely dusty.
In May last year, the builders achieved their first milestone when they diverted the course of the Blue Nile.
View of the Nile near the site of the Renaissance Dam
What used to be the river bed is now being lined with layers and layers of concrete that will form part of the main dam.
The construction site
Some 8,500 people working at the site, where construction carries on 24 hours a day.
Construction site
Part of the actual dam structure is already taking shape. The workers are busy at work on what looks like a huge floor of concrete.
Downstream, Egypt - which relies almost totally on the waters of the Nile, says their supply will be under threat.
Egypt and Sudan currently get the lion's share of the Nile's waters under colonial-era treaties. While Sudan backs Ethiopia's plans, Egypt has remained opposed.
Talks to ease tensions between the two countries have collapsed.
Despite this, Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Amb Dina Mufti describes the dam as a "win-win" project.
"Sudan has already seen the benefits and has come on board, we hope Egypt will see that too," he says.
Sally Nabil, Aswan, Egypt

The River Nile at Aswan
The concern in Egypt is about the potential threat to its dominance over the Nile.
Egypt fears Ethiopia's dam will restrict the flow of this strategic waterway - the main source of water in a country where rainfall is scarce.
The row started in 2011, and Egypt has been worried ever since that its annual quota of the Nile water might be reduced.
This conflict comes at a time when different parts of Egypt are already suffering from a shortage of water. In the northern Nile Delta, the agricultural heart of Egypt, a lot of farmers are waiting with a heavy heart to see if they will be able to cultivate their land next summer.
"With even less water, we will die. We can't survive," says Hafiza, one of the farmers.
Ethiopia says its hydro-electric dam will not harm either of its downstream countries, Egypt or Sudan. However, Egypt is highly sceptical.
"It is a matter of life or death, a national security issue that can never be compromised on," says foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty.
Egypt is aware that some 30% of the Ethiopian dam is completed. It is still unclear what's Egypt's next step will be.
The River Nile at AswanMost of Egypt's farmland and population depends on the Nile

Monday, March 17, 2014

Ethiopia draws in Chinese water management expertise | Africa | Worldbulletin News

Under the deal, Hydrochina will provide training for the scientific and technical personnel of the Ethiopian enterprise
World Bulletin/News Desk
Ethiopia and China have signed a memorandum of understanding, under which Chinese company Hydrochina would provide technical support and consultation to projects supervised by Ethiopia's Water Works Design and Supervision Enterprise (WWDSE).
"Hydrochina will transfer scientific and technical software, knowhow and management systems," WWDSE business development and planning sub-process manager Berhan Demisse told Anadolu Agency on Sunday.
"The agreement will last for one year beginning March 12," Demisse added.
Under the deal, Hydrochina will provide training for the scientific and technical personnel of the Ethiopian enterprise, he said.
The memo of understanding also provides for the two sides to exchange scientific and technical skills and experience and to share information on the basis of mutually agreed commercial terms, added Demisse.
Founded in Shanghai, China, in 1954, Hydrochina is engaged in providing engineering consultancies, analytics and research services to water projects across China and worldwide.
Ethiopia has 12 river basins, estimated to generate an annual runoff of more than 122 billion cubic meters.
However, observers believe that the economic utilization of the resource lags behind demand.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Egypt, Ethiopia at loggerheads over Nile River | Toronto Star

Egypt, Ethiopia at loggerheads over Nile River

Cairo worries Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a $4-billion hydroelectric project, could choke the downstream flow of Nile River.

----------------
Ethiopia has begun diverting the Blue Nile as part of a giant dam project that is creating tension with Egypt.

WILLIAM LLOYD-GEORGE / AFP/GETTY IMAGES/FILE PHOTO
Ethiopia has begun diverting the Blue Nile as part of a giant dam project that is creating tension with Egypt.
WASHINGTON—Egypt’s musical-chairs government faces enough challenges. So why is a construction project almost 3,000 kilometres from Cairo provoking fears over Egypt’s national survival?
Egypt and Ethiopia are butting heads over the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a $4-billion hydroelectric project that Ethiopia is building on the headwaters of the Blue Nile, near the border between Ethiopia and Sudan.
Cairo worries the megaproject, which began construction in 2011 and is scheduled to be finished by 2017, could choke the downstream flow of the Nile River right when it expects its needs for fresh water to increase.
Brandishing a pair of colonial-era treaties, Egypt argues the Nile’s waters largely belong to it and that it has veto power over dams and other upstream projects.
Ethiopia, for its part, sees a chance to finally take advantage of the world’s longest river, and says the 6,000 megawatts of electricity the dam will produce will be a key spur to maintaining Africa’s highest economic growth rate and for growth in energy-starved neighbours.
The dispute has heated up again, after a fresh effort to iron out the differences at the negotiating table collapsed. Egypt has sought to get the United Nations to intervene, and reportedly asked Ethiopia to halt construction on the dam until the two sides can work out an agreement, which Ethiopian officials rebuffed.
A former Egyptian irrigation minister said this week that Egypt is doing too little to forestall the dam, and highlighted the risks to the country’s water supply. Italy’s ambassador to Egypt has reportedly offered Italian help in mediating the showdown; an Italian firm is constructing the dam.
The dam has been a glimmer in Ethiopia’s eye since U.S. scientists surveyed the site in the 1950s. A lack of cash and Egypt’s strength forestalled any development — but that appears to have changed in the wake of the Arab Spring and Egypt’s three years of domestic political upheaval.
For most of the 20th century, Egypt and Sudan divvied up the Nile’s water between them. A 1929 treaty with British African colonial possessions gave Egypt the right to more than half the river’s flow; a 1959 treaty upped Egypt’s share to about 66 per cent. The rest was allocated to Sudan. Ethiopia, whose highlands are the fount of most of the Nile’s waters, was excluded from discussions.
“It is only Egypt and the Republic of Sudan that consider the 1929 and 1959 agreements as legally binding on all the Nile River riparian states,” John Mbaku of the Brookings Institute Africa Growth Initiative, said in an interview.
“The Ethiopians may have undertaken what appears to be unilateral action because of Cairo’s unwillingness to join other riparian states in renegotiating” those accords, he said.
Ethiopia began pushing back seriously after concluding its own water rights deal with other upstream nations, such as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 2010. It laid the first stone on the construction project in the spring of 2011 and says the dam is now about one-third complete.
“With all of the chaos in Egypt, Ethiopia caught a break. It has clearly benefitted from the distractions of the government in Cairo,” said David Shinn, a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia.
In 2012, Sudan threw its weight behind the project, driving a wedge between the two downstream users of the river and complicating Cairo’s hopes to block construction.
Egypt’s fears stem from the dam’s possible impacts on the Nile as it flows downstream through Sudan and eventually to the Mediterranean. The Nile provides both water for Egyptian agriculture, and also electricity through Egypt’s own Aswan dam.
The big problem: there has been no public discussion of the downstream impacts of the Ethiopian project. An international panel of experts, including representatives from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, presented a report last summer to the three governments, but it has not been made public.
Leaks of the report suggested that Egyptian power generation could indeed suffer — but the lack of clarity muddies the issue even for water experts, because it is unclear just how quickly Ethiopia might move to fill the dam’s reservoir after construction is finished.
Filling it sooner would choke water flows downstream, but would enable power generation more quickly; filling it gradually would push back the potential benefits of the dam for decades.
Jennifer Veilleux, a PhD candidate at Oregon State University who has done extensive field work on the impacts of the Blue Nile dam, notes that Egyptian fretting about the dam’s impact on agriculture tends to focus on poor farmers.
But Egypt has used the abundant Nile waters to become a major exporter of water-thirsty crops, such as cotton, which in turn has given Egypt the highest level of economic development among all Nile Basin countries.
“Why does Egypt have the right to use the Nile for economic development, yet the Ethiopians don’t?” she asks.