Egyptian warning over Ethopian Nile dam

[Battle of Kursk]

Ethiopian parliament votes to strip Egypt of rights to majority of Nile water

Tensions rise between neighbours over £4.7bn Great Renaissance Dam project



Ethiopia's parliament has unanimously ratified a treaty that strips Egypt of its right to the lion's share of the Nile river waters, raising the political temperature in a dispute between Cairo and Addis Ababa over the construction of a dam.

The parliament's move follows days of irate exchanges between two of Africa's most populous nations over Ethiopia's new hydroelectric plant, which Egypt fears will reduce a water supply vital for its 84 million people.

Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi said on Monday he did not want "war" but would keep "all options open", prompting Ethiopia to say it was ready to defend its $4.7bn Great Renaissance Dam near the border with Sudan.

Six Nile-basin countries including Ethiopia have signed a deal effectively stripping Cairo of its veto, which is based in colonial-era treaties, over dam projects on the Nile, the source of nearly all Egypt's water.

Ethiopia's late leader Meles Zenawi had delayed parliamentary ratification until Egypt elected a new government.

"Most of the upstream countries have approved it through their parliaments. We delayed it as a gesture of goodwill to the people of Egypt until a formal elected government was in place," Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon told Reuters.

"We have a principled stance on the construction of dams. We are determined to see our projects brought to completion."

Another government spokesman, Shimeles Kemal, said Ethiopia's 547-seat legislature had voted to "incorporate the treaty into domestic law".

Egyptian foreign minister Mohamed Kamel Amr is expected to travel to Addis Ababa on Sunday for talks about the dam, though Ethiopia's foreign ministry has said there can be no question of suspending construction.

Ethiopian parliament votes to strip Egypt of rights to majority of Nile water | World news | guardian.co.uk

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

Beating the drums of war ..

 

[PakPrinciples]

Good for Morsi.

Ethiopia is a **** hole that needs to be taken care of. Killing Muslims in Somalia, Eritrea through wars and now trying to do something similar in Egypt and Sudan with this plan to dam the river.

Egypt should be able to get Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan on board.

Whats this nonsense of UAE and Qatar paying Ethiopians for the Dam. The Brotherhood is making up lies or is this true?

I highly doubt any news concerning GCC funding towards an Ethiopian dam.

Sounds kind of like the same crap Israel is now even denying about them sending Pakistan sensitive military hardware or the accusations the US made about one particular drone strike was the doing of Pakistan itself when we don't even have armed drones.

Could be an attempt to prevent Muslims from cooperating with each other or trying to get our states to start warring with one another.

 

[Battle of Kursk]

Personally I believe the current situation is not sustainable for Egypt. The upriver countries have both the moral right and the need to use these waters. There are over a hundred million people in the upriver countries.
It's a shame that Egypt and Sudan never renegotiated an agreement with the countries themselves as it was drawn up with the might of the British empire without caring much for the others.
I Egypt may fight this, but I doubt that it would be able to sustain the situation which gives over 90% of the water to Sudan and Egypt indefinitely. Ethiopia and others are using the fact that Egypt is at it's lowest to alter the situation.

Though it's uncountable Egypt has the military might to defeat the Ethiopian army, do they have the economical ability to endure a prolonged conflict? They should be able to disrupt the building of the damn, but the upriver countries can build literately thousands of small project diverting and using the streams that flow into the origins of the Nile. At a very low cost too. If the upriver and especially Ethiopia are determined I can't see a way Egypt can stop them from diverting large amounts of water from the Nile over a long period of time, militarily.

On the other hand at this time Egypt needs all the water it's getting. Less water means people dying and the agriculture suffocating, this in a time of grave economical troubles and many people going hungry anyway.

The only long term solution that would work for the benefit of everyone involved in my mind is Egypt building treatment plants to make usable water out of sea water, plus using technologies to minimize the wastage of water, purifying sewer to larger extents and using the Israeli developed agricultural technologies, water saving taps etc.
Where to find the money for all this is a good riddle indeed. In any case for this to work Ethiopia needs to give Egypt more time imo, should the Egyptians show willingness to go for a solution.

 

[Hack-Hook]

if Egypt politicians were wise they would have made waterways like what Qaddafi made for Libya to reduce their dependence on Nile as the only source of water. they also had modernized their agriculture sector so they could reduce the water they consume in that sector dramatically .

 

[al-Hasani]

if Egypt politicians were wise they would have made waterways like what Qaddafi made for Libya to reduce their dependence on Nile as the only source of water. they also had modernized their agriculture sector so they could reduce the water they consume in that sector dramatically .

Correct, but Ethiopia is behaving badly. I know that Egypt is the most dry country in the world and that they are HUGELY dependent on the Nile. Most of Ethiopia is not much better off but at least they have fertile parts of their country that are not dependent on the Nile.

Ethiopia are acting moronic and they should not get away with such behavior.

Rivers that are part of several countries should be regulated so each country can mutually benefit from them. Just like international borders on the sea. I think that there are already international laws/treaties that deal with such issues.

 

[Serpentine]

Water is not something that could be joked about.It's really serious, and it's more important than oil.

 

[al-Hasani]

Good for Morsi.

Ethiopia is a **** hole that needs to be taken care of. Killing Muslims in Somalia, Eritrea through wars and now trying to do something similar in Egypt and Sudan with this plan to dam the river.

Egypt should be able to get Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan on board.



I highly doubt any news concerning GCC funding towards an Ethiopian dam.

Sounds kind of like the same crap Israel is now even denying about them sending Pakistan sensitive military hardware or the accusations the US made about one particular drone strike was the doing of Pakistan itself when we don't even have armed drones.

Could be an attempt to prevent Muslims from cooperating with each other or trying to get our states to start warring with one another.

Why should the GCC support one dam in Ethiopia? There are over 250 dams in KSA alone in the mountainous regions in all of Hejaz, Southern KSA and elsewhere too. Yemen is full of dams too since it is largely a mountainous country. Same with Oman.

Can't see the reason for all this.

Moreover Egypt is a great ally of ours. Always was and moreover a neighbor of KSA that is located just across the beautiful Red Sea. Fellow Muslim and Arab country too.

Ethiopia might have a Muslim population of 40 % and be a fellow Semitic people (after all Ethiopia has played quite some role in the early Islamic history) and we also have quite a few Africans from the Horn of Africa on the Peninsula but their government is clearly not understanding the language of diplomacy or the importance of water in that part of Africa which is one of the driest in the world if not the driest - at least Egypt is.

I don't know what they are thinking? It's not like Ethiopia is surrounded by friends as you point out. Very strange. They should have enough of water as it is now.

Also what role does Sudan play in all of this?

 

[Audio]

iirc Chinese banks gave the loan for the turbines, the rest of financing is supposed to be done by Ethiopia itself and contractor is Italian like it was mentioned above.

 

[Battle of Kursk]

Ethiopia might have a Muslim population of 40 %

34% actually

but their government is clearly not understanding the language of diplomacy or the importance of water in that part of Africa which is one of the driest in the world if not the driest - at least Egypt is.

Ethiopia has plenty of water, but it cannot use most of said water as per the Nile treaty. Ethiopia is the source of some 80% of the Nile water, but according to treaties signed in the colonial era they cannot use any of it without Egyptian permission.
Farther More in 1959 Egypt and Sudan has signed a treaty that divided 100% of the Nile water among the two of them, ignoring the needs of the upriver countries.
Realistically Sudan and Egypt are using over 90% of the Nile waters.
The upriver countries had tried diplomacy and have started working on a new treaty. As far as I know Egypt refuses to reduce the amount of water it receives (I might be wrong here, if someone has a source that says otherwise I would very much like to learn of it).

I don't know what they are thinking? It's not like Ethiopia is surrounded by friends as you point out.

They are surrounded by both kinds.

In May 2010, five upstream states signed a Cooperative Framework Agreement to seek more water from the River Nile — a move strongly opposed by Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania were original signatories with Burundi signing in February 2011. The DRC is also expected to sign, while Egypt and Sudan are not expected to do so.

The 1959 agreement between Sudan and Egypt allocated the entire average annual flow of the Nile to be shared among the Sudan and Egypt at 18.5 and 55.5 billion cubic meters respectively, but ignored the rights to water of the remaining eight Nile countries. Ethiopia contributes 80% of the total Nile flow, but by the 1959 agreement is entitled to none of its resources. However, the agreement between Egypt and Sudan is not binding on Ethiopia as it was never a party to it. Since the early 1990s, Ethiopia has successfully countered Egyptian and Sudanese resistance to water development projects in Ethiopia to increase irrigation and hydroelectric potential. Since May 2010, Ethiopia and the other upper riparian states have launched the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement in a bid to ensure an equitable utilization between all the riparian states of the Nile.

Somaliland takes part nile river solutions agricultural lands are not charged for water, but are for irrigation and drainage improvements, WUAs should be responsible for payment as it would produce a group responsibility of all members. Monitoring of water and soil quality should be left to the WUAs and reported to field supervisors which then report to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) office.
Since the effort to produce clean water will take time, steps that can be taken as short term results are: Tapping into shallow wells for drinking water obtained from fields and unlined canals; since the soil acts as a filter it can remove contaminants. Consulting with farmers when designing irrigation systems for optimal performance should be taken into consideration. (IWMI, 2006) Informing the public of safe handling of food methods, the use of manure and mulching crop residue, less evasive tillage and rotating crops that do not need the same nutrients to improve the soils ability to hold water, and switching to short duration crops to decrease water consumption is advised. Proper application of reused drainage water during a crops growth cycle is optimal.
In Giza, they have the largest governorate discharge of agricultural, industrial and domestic sewage that goes directly into the Nile through three drains without treatment. A solution is to construct three wastewater treatment plants with “activated sludge” and “high capacity”. “Activated sludge” is the cheapest technology that reduces E. coli and biological oxygen demand (BOD) concentrations and switching the Abu-Rawash treatment plant from primary to activated sludge. Public and industrial awareness should also be promoted to reduce illegal dumping. Public awareness can help achieve efficient water usage and cleaner water. Increased monitoring of discharged areas and enforcing fines of illegal dumping should be integrated in already established government offices. Monitoring of these enforcements should be done by an outside source like the World Bank since they have provided Egypt with financing for improvements of water usage. If the World Bank finds the government has not enforced the established fines, then they can add exceptions to their loan agreements that would create incentives for enforcement of fines.

Water politics in the Nile Basin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nile Basin Initiative - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia