Sunday, December 8, 2013

Talks between Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia to tackle seven main issues: Sources | Egypt Independent

Sudanese sources said on Saturday seven main issues will be tackled in the eastern Nile countries’ technical experts meetings that will start on Sunday in Khartoum.

An agreement will be signed to guarantee approach between points of view on the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project. Parties will consider mechanisms of the dam’s administration and operation as well as economic, social and environmental impacts.

The meeting will discuss agreement on financing the dam and timeline to implement recommendations of the international committee which evaluates the dam, the sources added. The Sudanese government is trying to overcome the current impasse of conflicts between Egypt and Ethiopia.

Parties will also consider resuming studies on the dam's safety, according to sources, which added that the Sudanese government is trying to reassure citizens in al-Qadarif state, located on the Ethiopian-Sudanese border, after the Ethiopian side offered practical vows over these studies.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir instructed ministries taking part in meetings of the technical experts or the ministries to work on success of the negotiations, especially that Khartoum is the sponsor to approach points of view between Cairo and Addis Ababa, the sources added.

On Monday, a meeting will be held among the three countries’ water ministers to agree on future of cooperation between them and mechanisms of implementing the recommendations

Meanwhile, the sources accused unnamed foreign parties of creating division between Egypt and Sudan. They considered that the meeting between the three countries' water ministers will push relations forward during the coming period and encourage both Egyptian and Sudanese governments to open the common land road to increase rates of trade between Cairo and Khartoum.

However, Sudanese experts and observers assured that Khartoum seeks resumption of talks following disputes that took place in the earlier meeting on 4 November. Agreement between the three countries’ ministers to resume the meeting in Khartoum confirms that Sudan is keen on success of the negotiations to find a solution for the impasse and achieve comprehensive compromise between the Nile Basin countries that guarantees full administration of the Nile water resources. This also expresses interest in carrying out joint projects to link electricity between the basin countries and then export electricity to European Union countries via Egypt.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Sudan, Ethiopia in cross-border power link and the Nile dam and security issues

ENLARGE

(Globalpost/GlobalPost)

Sudan and Ethiopia on Wednesday inaugurated a cross-border electricity link which an analyst said aims to strengthen Khartoum-Addis Ababa ties as tensions persist with Egypt over a giant dam.

President Omar al-Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn "opened the Sudan Ethiopia power connector this morning in Gedaref state", the official SUNA news agency reported.

A 321-kilometre (199-mile) line has been completed at a cost of $35 million between Gedaref power station and Ethiopia's Amhara state, SUNA reported.

The line has a capacity of 300 MW but Sudan will initially buy 100 MW, SUNA said.

Desalegn arrived in the Sudanese capital on Tuesday for talks with President Omar al-Bashir as part of a wider routine dialogue between officials of the neighbouring countries.

Although they have discussed a range of issues over two days, Safwat Fanous, a University of Khartoum political scientist, said the electricity link is the most significant.

"Ethiopia wants to appeal and neutralise Sudan" over the dam which Cairo fears could diminish its water supply, Fanous said.

Sudan has said it does not expect to be affected by Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam development, but Fanous told AFP that Addis Ababa wants to be sure "to take Sudan on board".

Ethiopia began diverting the Blue Nile in May to build the 6,000-MW hydro project which will be Africa's largest when completed in 2017.

Egypt believes its "historic rights" to the Nile are guaranteed by two treaties from 1929 and 1959 which allow it 87 percent of the Nile's flow and give it veto power over upstream projects.

But a new deal signed in 2010 by other Nile Basin countries, including Ethiopia, allows them to work on river projects without Cairo's prior agreement.

Sudan, along with Egypt, has not signed the Nile Basin deal.

'Minimal impact on water levels'

Water ministers from the three countries are to meet in Khartoum on Sunday.

During talks last month, they failed to agree on the composition of a committee to implement expert recommendations about the dam, Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti has said.

The experts' report has not been made public, but Ethiopia said it confirms that the impact on water levels is minimal.

Egypt, which has sought further studies about the dam's impact, wants international representatives on the committee but Ethiopia prefers national delegates, Karti said.

The Grand Renaissance dam will produce more electricity than Ethiopia needs, so it will have to export the surplus, Fanous said.

The new line from Ethiopia will power Sudan's impoverished east, allowing the diversion of existing electricity sources to other areas such as war-torn Kordofan or Darfur, Fanous said.

In return, Ethiopia is a "big market" for Sudanese sorghum, sesame and onions grown in the east, he added.

At Wednesday's ceremony Bashir pointed to the "mutual benefits of the electricity project," while Desalegn envisaged a further expansion of bilateral ties, SUNA said.

Sudan also relies on its own hydroelectric sources including the Nile River's Merowe Dam development which opened in 2009 at a cost of more than $2 billion.

The country's consumption peaked above 2,000 MW last year, SUNA reported.

Desalegn's visit comes about a week after Issaias Afeworki, the leader of Ethiopia's neighbour and rival Eritrea, visited the eastern Sudanese city of Port Sudan where he and Bashir opened a tourism festival.

Fanous said Sudan tries to maintain a balanced relationship between its two neighbours, "but of course Eritrea is not as important to Sudan as Ethiopia, at all levels".

Ethiopia chairs the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African regional bloc which has helped to mediate a dispute between Sudan and South Sudan this year.

Separately, a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Abyei region disputed between Sudan and South Sudan is made up almost entirely of Ethiopian soldiers.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Avert water wars - build desalination plants - SFGate

Joel Brinkley

A woman shields herself from the sun as she crosses a parched landscape last year toward a water source that supplies Islamabad and Rawalpindi in Pakistan. Photo: B.K. Bangash, Associated Press

Larger | Smaller

Printable Version

Email This
Font

Get ready for the water wars.

Most of the world's population takes water for granted, just like air - two life-sustaining substances. After all, the human body is nearly two-thirds water.

But a Hindustan Times blogger said that in India right now, as in so many other places around the globe, drinkable water has become such a precious commodity that it's dragging the world into "water wars to follow the ones for the control of fuel oil."

Climate change is drying up lakes and rivers almost everywhere. In Australia, for example, an unprecedented heat wave brought on massive wildfires and critical water shortages.

As water grows scarce, more countries are building dams on rivers to hog most of the water for themselves, depriving the nations downstream. Already, Egypt had threatened to bomb the Grand Renaissance Dam upstream on the Nile River in Ethiopia.

And as the Earth's population crossed the 7 billion mark last year, more and more water sources are so polluted that drinking the water can kill you. No one's counting, but various government and private estimates indicate that worldwide, tens of thousands of children die every day from drinking contaminated water.

By most estimates, half the world's people live in places where clean water is not easily available. Bangalore, India, for example once had 400 lakes in its vicinity. Now, the New Indian Express newspaper wrote, only 40 are left, and all of them are polluted.

Hence the fights. One of the biggest areas of conflict is the India-Pakistan-China nexus. Multiple rivers intertwine the countries, and as water levels fall, all three are building dams to keep much of the water for themselves.

China has built more dams than any other nation, making numerous countries angry because Chinese rivers flow into more adjacent states than from any other state. And yet, even with 14 different downstream border states, China refuses to agree to any water treaties. Right now, China has approved plans to build 54 more dams on rivers, many of which serve as the lifeblood of neighboring states.

In China's north, "desertification" is turning vast areas into dust bowls. So the government is trying to divert 6 trillion gallons of water per year from the Yangtze River to reclaim the area, worrying people in other parts of China who rely on the Yangtze for their own water.

In Iran, farmers in one region destroyed a water-pump station that was carrying water away from their area to the city of Yazd. That started a fight with security forces, but the farmers are remaining on station to make sure the pump is not rebuilt.

A recent NASA study warned of an "alarming rate of decrease in total water storage" in Iraq's "Tigris and Euphrates river basins, which currently have the second-fastest rate of groundwater storage loss on Earth, after India." The report warned that water scarcity could become another cause of conflict.

Egypt's military threats against Ethiopia begin to make sense when you realize that Egypt's 84 million people draw 95 percent of their water from the Nile River. A common saying is that without the Nile there is no Egypt.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently held a hearing on water shortages and other threats in Central Asia, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Costa Mesa (Orange County), warned of another potential conflict, quoting Uzbekistan's president, Islam Karimov: "Uzbekistan will even use weapons if necessary" against its northern neighbor Kazakhstan "to get the water passing through (Kyrgyzstan) territory that we intend to accumulate in reservoirs."

In Sri Lanka this month, the Daily News wrote: "We can live many days without food, but without water it is about three days." Still, "we can't seem to get the right water to the right people at the right time. ... More people have access to cell phones than safe water."

So where is all this water going? With ever-rising temperatures, more and more water evaporates and returns to the ground as rain. But most of it falls into the oceans. That's one reason sea levels are rising worldwide, threatening vast coastal areas.

But all of that leaves the world with an expensive but straightforward solution to the water-shortage problem everywhere. Build desalination plants, as Australia, Israel, Saudi Arabia and other well-off, water-stressed states are already doing.

Soon enough, whichever country starts marketing these critically important plants worldwide will make a lot of money and grow to be seen as a savior for millions of the world's people.

© 2013 Joel Brinkley Joel Brinkley is the Hearst professional in residence at Stanford University and a Pulitzer Prize-winning former correspondent for the New York Times. To comment, go to sfgate.com/submissions/#1)

Nile talks between Egypt, Ethiopia fail to reach deal

November 21, 2013 (ADDIS ABABA) – The Ethiopian and Egyptian leaders on Tuesday held talks in Kuwait over Cairo’s concern regarding the construction of what will upon completion be Africa’s biggest hydro power plant.

According to Al Jazeera, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, and Egypt’s interim president, Adly Mansour, discussed the row over the Nile on the sidelines of an Afro-Arab Summit in Kuwait.

However, the talks between the two leaders ended with failure to reach an agreement, particularly after the Egyptian president demanded to negotiate over the dam project, a request rejected by the Ethiopian premier.

Egypt has proposed for reduction in the size of Nile dam’s structure and on the water holding capacity of its reservoir which is projected to hold 63 billion cubic meters.

Sudan Tribune’s attempts to contact officials in the prime minister’s office were futile as they were reported to be out of the country.

Egypt says the Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam, being built at Nile tributary near the Sudanese border will diminish the water supply to its soil.

Water security is a prime concern to the North African nation as the Blue Nile -which has its soruce in Ethiopia- is the source to 85 % of Egypt’s resource of water.

Egypt argues that it does not have other alternative water sources unlike other Nile Basin Countries and insists the colonial-era agreement which gives Egypt around 70 percent of Nile River water sources shouldn’t be violated.

Addis Ababa however says its controversial dam project will not affect the water interest of the two downstream countries - Egypt and Sudan.

Ethiopia’s Minister of Water and Energy, Alemayehu Tegenu, told Sudan Tribune that his country won’t back off from its plans to build the power plant because of Egypt’s concern.

He said one country’s hegemony over a regional resource that belongs to all Nile Basin Countries is unacceptable.

Tegenu further said the hydropower plant is a regional project that would benefit all Nile Basin Countries and it shouldn’t be a source confrontation but cooperation.

A panel of international experts who were tasked to assess the dam project’s regional impact said in their final findings that the power plant project doesn’t have any adverse impacts on Egypt or Sudan.

The meeting in Kuwait was the first for the two leaders since former Egyptian president; Mohamed Morsi was ousted in July by the military following mass protests.

Egypt has in the past warned against any upstream projects and there has never been such bigger project along the river since Ethiopia launched the mega dam project two years ago.

Tensions between Ethiopia and Egypt escalated after Addis Ababa started diverting the course of the Nile River in May as part of an engineering work.

Following the diversion work Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi, warned that all options were being considered to stop the dam.

The $4.2 billion massive Hydro power plant is currently 30 % complete and will produce 6,000 Megawatts of energy upon completion.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Fahmy holds intensive round of meetings in Kuwait - Daily News Egypt

Foreign Minister discusses range of issues with African and Arab counterparts ahead of summit

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmi attends the Arab-African Foreign Ministers meeting in Kuwait city on November 17, 2013. (AFP PHOTO/YASSER AL-ZAYYAT)

Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs conducted several meetings on Sunday with his counterparts from Sudan, Djibouti, Nigeria, Algeria and Jordan, as well as African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. The meetings covered a range of issues including Egypt’s water security, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and the status of Egypt’s membership to the African Union Peace and Security Council, according to ministry statements

During the discussions with his counterparts from the African continent and Dlamini-Zuma, Fahmy discussed Egypt’s status within the African Union council from which Egypt was suspended following the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in July. The statements from the ministry indicate that the African ministers support Egypt’s reinstatement into the council.

According to the spokesman for the ministry, Dlamini-Zuma said that she “wishes for the [Egyptian] government to implement the road map,” adding that the African Union is following the situation closely. “Everyone hopes for Egypt to resume its vital role in the Union as soon as possible,” she added, according to the ministry spokesman.

Fahmy discussed the situation of the GERD with his Sudanese counterpart Ali Karti, focusing particularly on the trilateral negotiations, which also include Ethiopia. As downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan fear that the construction of the dam could have a detrimental effect on the share of the Nile water, of which Egypt currently receives the largest portion.

Nigerian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Viola Adaku Onwuliri and Fahmy agreed on strengthening relations between the two countries and discussed potential areas of cooperation. Fahmy also informed his counterpart about his recent visits to countries in the Nile Basin and Senegal, stressing that Egypt is seeking to improve relations with African nations.

Fahmy and his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh discussed the progress of the Israeli-Palestinian final status negotiations, the Syrian conflict and the efforts for convening the proposed Geneva II conference to achieve peace in the war-torn country.

Fahmy is part of the Egyptian delegation attending the third Africa-Arab Summit being held in Kuwait. The foreign minister was joined in Kuwait on Sunday by interim President Adly Mansour, interim Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Cooperation Ziad Bahaa El-Din and interim Minister of Trade and Industry Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour.

The spokesman for the foreign ministry told Daily News Egypt on Sunday that the Egyptian delegation would focus on promoting development cooperation in Africa. The spokesman also confirmed that Fahmy would hold “many meetings on the side of the summit.”

In recent months the ministry has embarked on improving relations with African countries, the relationships with which had been largely neglected by previous regimes. Fahmy has travelled to countries in the Nile Basin and has met with his Ethiopian counterpart to discuss the issues at hand. The ministry also dispatched diplomats on a tour of African nations to express Egypt’s rejection of the African Union suspension as well as portray the “correct and proper image” of Egypt.