tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89738244017295052712024-02-18T23:32:41.345-08:00Nile Waters ፈለገ-ግዮንThe Protection of the Nile and its RiparianUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger213125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-10533576644772119362017-09-09T02:26:00.001-07:002017-09-09T02:26:19.513-07:00Egypt and Controlling the Nile - Myth & Reality -Hamdy <div class="figure picture inset left" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px 22px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 296px;"><img src="http://cdn04.allafrica.com/download/pic/main/main/csiid/00410265:c88dde0d6eb127996d10f5636f1dc4cc:arc614x376:w285:us1.png" height="175" style="background-color: transparent; border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) -2px 2px 2px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 4px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="285" /><span class="credit right" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; float: right; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Photo: <a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/" style="background: transparent; color: #999999; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Daily Monitor</a></span><br /><br />
<div class="figcaption" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 8px 0px 0px 8px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tourist site. Tourists take a boat ride at the Source of River Nile early this year.</div></div><span class="kindofstory" style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: "arial" , "liberation sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">OPINION</span><cite class="byline" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By Hamdy A. Hassan</cite><br /><br />
<div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="61" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">River Nile is steeped in Egyptian mythology. But the waters of the Nile are a crucial resource for several other countries. Conflicts over the world's longest river, even in recent times, have almost led to war. This should not be the case. The Nile waters must be managed as a source of cooperation and sustainable development for all the countries involved.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="2" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Introduction</strong></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="106" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Nile River occupies a central place in the general perception of all Egyptians since the pre-Christian era of ancient Egypt. The river has been the nucleus of the ancient world and its lifeline, thereby justifying the sanctification of its waters. Claiming a lack of knowledge on the part of the ancient Egyptians could not have been why they perceived that the source of the Nile water was of divine nature. The origin of the Nile's water and its flow for the ancient Egyptians was the god Noun, the Lord of the eternal water, who was the cradle of all living beings including the gods themselves.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="85" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It is possible that this sacred development of the Nile River, which dominated ancient Egyptian thought, is due to two fundamental reasons. First, Egypt was considered the gift of the Nile, thereby explaining the constant respect and veneration it received from the Egyptians; and, second, the inconceivable notion that the lifeline of Egypt stems from outside its holy lands. Based on this belief in the holy progression of the Nile, this great river became a determinant of Egypt as a homeland and its national identity.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="103" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As Emile Ludwig identified, the Egyptian god Amun deemed Egypt as the country where the Nile flooded from, and that anyone who drinks from the Nile after Elephantine is Egyptian [1]. Moreover, Seneca argued: "All rivers were 'vulgares aqua' but the Nile was the 'most noble' of all watercourses."[2] The modern Egyptian thinker, Jamal Himdan, emphasized this sense of thinking by saying: "The first civilization was the fruit of a blissful union between Egypt and the Nile. If history is the father of the Egyptians, Egypt is the mother of the world, and the Nile is simply the greatest ancestor of human civilization".[4]</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="6" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2. Danger emanating from the South</strong></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="84" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There is no doubt that this link between Egypt and the Nile River has created a sense of insecurity coupled with the existence of a serious threat to the lives of Egyptians with the possibility of a disruption in the flow of the Nile waters. An excerpt from the reign of King Djoser of the Third Dynasty of Egypt is a clear indication of the effects of halting the flow of the Nile water after the famine hit Egypt for seven years, which reads:</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="102" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"I was in mourning on my throne, those of the palace were in grief .... Because Hapy had failed to come in time. In a period of seven years, Grain was scant, Kernels were discharged up ... Every man robbed his twin ... Children cried ... The hearts of the old were needed ... Temples were shut, Shrines covered with dust, everyone was in distress .... I consulted One of the staff of the Ibis, the Chief lector-priest of Imhotep, son of Ptah South-of-the-Wall .... He departed, he returned to me quickly, He let me know the flow of Hapy ..." [5]</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="114" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">These ancient legends were also associated with Christianity and Islam, where the great river remained linked to the general Egyptian conscience as a point of holiness and reverence. The relationship between Egypt and Ethiopia remained uncertain because of Egypt's belief in Ethiopia's ability to divert the river, which could cause famine and overall losses for Egyptians. After Christianity entered Ethiopia, Egypt sent the Bishop of the Ethiopian Church from Alexandria. Consequently, there has been a sense of stability in the regional balance of power as a result of this religious variable. If Ethiopia is the source of water, then Egypt is the home of the abun - the Egyptian metropolitan bishop - for Ethiopia.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="129" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The conversion of the Nile and its domination became a religious issue in the Egyptian and Ethiopian imagination, and until the 19th century it was associated with a religious miracle in Christianity. In Islam, Muslims have conquered the Nile River and considered it the master of the rivers, and they have added to it an element of holiness, as many Muslim scholars have linked it to many Islamic texts. Furthermore, some historical sources refer to the so-called "Nile Charter" which the Caliph Omar Ibn al-Khattab wrote about, citing the annual celebration of the Nile's flood, where the flood was emanating from God Himself and not from the river. [6] This reveals the centrality of the Nile River in Egyptian customs since the era of ancient religions and even Islam.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="156" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Along with the prevailing Egyptian religious perception of the Nile River, the evidence confirming that the origins of the Nile waters lie outside the Egyptian borders has prompted those who ruled Egypt throughout history to try to dominate the tropical region where the Nile waters embark from. The father of modern Egypt, Mohamed Ali, summoned a group of European engineers to come to Egypt who unanimously establish that the Nile's sources under the control of any other country besides Egypt would be detrimental to Egypt's livelihood and future. Hence, with Muhammad Ali Pasha and after him with Khedive Ismail, great attention was given to pinpointing and revealing the origins of the Nile. Muhammad Ali traveled himself and oversaw his campaigns and their administration that were sent to the Sudan and beyond. It was no secret that the aim of these scouting campaigns for the Nile sources was to secure the flow of water coming to Egypt.[7]</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="132" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Nasserite leadership recognized the importance of water in constructing the new national ideology, where the role of the Nile waters was not limited to ascertaining the Egyptian identity, but it had become a source of life which wars could be fought over. Egypt had already been able to expand the 1959 agreement with Sudan separately, with no other river state joining it. Therefore, it has become commonplace, as mentioned in another study from the Egyptian national perspective, to describe the Nile River as Egypt's principle artery of life. It is life itself for Egypt. This statement does not apply to the same extent to the other riparian states. Therefore, one of the major strategic threats to Egyptian national security is the threat to its vital resources that lay beyond Egyptian borders.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="76" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Despite the construction of the high dam, by which Nasser sought to modernize Egypt by transforming it into the 'Japan of Africa', he did not free the Egyptian administration from the external threat complex. In effect, the waters of the Nile will always remain one of the main determinants of Egyptian foreign policy towards the basin countries. The matter of securing the flow of Nile water remains dominant in Egypt's decision-making, regardless of who controls Cairo.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="118" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On a number of occasions, Egypt has demonstrated its preparedness to go to war if the situation so warranted. For example, in the 1970s when Ethiopia tried to establish projects in the Blue Nile without consultation with other fluvial states, Egypt warned Addis Ababa against such destabilizing actions. Egypt made it clear to Ethiopia that Cairo was prepared to go to war to protect its national interests. [8] Egypt's interests in Sudan are centered on the desire for stability in Khartoum. Specifically, the successful governments in Egypt have been concerned with potential hostile leaders taking over in Sudan. Similarly, any internal or external threats to stability in Sudan are viewed with great concern by Egyptian foreign policy-makers. [9]</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="62" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For decades, Egypt has become the dominant water power in the Nile Basin region, where it has veto power vis-à-vis other riparian states, which has kept the situation as it is in the Nile Basin region. No other Nile state has dared, as John Waterbury would say, to engage in a confrontation with Egypt, especially with respect to Egypt's national security. [10]</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="65" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Egyptian political and media discourse, which has prevailed in all its intellectual and ideological diversity since the beginning of the new millennium, has the same historic imperatives that bind Egypt and its sacred right to the waters of the Nile. Perhaps what was written by one of the famous Egyptian writers in 2010 reflects Egyptian concerns regarding its water security. Fahmi Huwaidi explained that:</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="39" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"The Egyptian antiquities embodied the fact that the Nile River is the source of life in Egypt through a painting depicting a boat combining the pharaoh with the symbol of the Nile Hapi with the symbol of justice Ma'at."</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="116" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Egyptian researchers considered this painting as a representation of the map of Egypt since the dawn of history, based on the three ruling arms of power: the Pharaoh, the Nile, and the Mediator of Justice, Ma'at. This is what the Pharaohs defended and protected for thousands of years, and what modern Egyptians are struggling to install and preserve in the twenty-first century. While it was thought that the Pharaoh's order and the Maat's justice order occupied the nation's top security concerns, it came as a surprise to the Egyptians that the power arm of Hapi's was in danger. It is true that the danger is neither immediate nor imminent, but the initial precepts are not misguided.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="79" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Egypt's historical share of the Nile's stable waters since 1929 and its agreement with Sudan in 1959 is now under scrutiny, in the same instance that Egypt realized that it needed to add another 11 billion to its share because of the sizeable increase in population and consumption rates. In light of its need for a bigger share of the Nile's resources, Egypt is staggered that they have to fight a long battle to maintain their original stake. [11]</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="125" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There is a strong belief in Egyptian and Arab thought that there is a correlation between the claim of the upstream countries to reconsider the Nile water quotas in the mid-nineties, with the return of Israel to the region. At a time when Egypt withdrew itself from its African involvement after the assassination attempt on President Mubarak in 1995 in Addis Ababa, Israeli and international policies have been active in order to encircle Egyptian security in its African extension [12]. The former Egyptian minister of irrigation and water resources, Mohammed Abu Zayd, expressed this thought when he stated in February 2009, that there was an Israeli-American plan to pressure Egypt to supply water to Tel Aviv, by raising the issue of the internationalization of rivers.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="120" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There are many Egyptian trends, especially those under the veil of Arab nationalism, which speak of the waters of the Nile as an Arab issue. In other words, as Helmi Sharawi says, Afro-Arab cooperation is not only to resolve African economic crises, but also to contribute to the Arab-African issues, foremost of which is the Nile water crisis. The water problem is a direct complication for Egypt, and its responsibility is necessarily distributed amongst many international regional and national parties, to currently include the Gulf States as well, as a key player in the balancing of investments in Ethiopia. Therefore, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is regarded as an Arab Gulf issue and not just a purely Egyptian affair.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="6" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Challenge to Egyptian water hegemony</strong></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="200" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Despite the announcement of the Ethiopian government on the construction of GERD in 2011 and the agreement to form a tripartite committee to assess the impact of the dam on the downstream state (Egypt and Sudan) in September of the same year, Egypt did not realize the dimensions of this danger coming from the South until 28 May 2013, when Ethiopia diverted the course of the Blue Nile, marking the beginning of the actual implementation phase. The Egyptian reaction, which was embodied by the meeting of the former President Mohamed Morsi with politicians and activists, combined the scenes of tragedy and absurdity at the same time, which may have implied Egypt's power decline in its regional environment. The follow-up assessment of the developments in the Upper Nile states over the past ten years showed that Egypt's strategic thinking failed to understand its regional variables and remained locked in the old delusions that viewed Egypt as a dominant regional force, while the situation remained the same in the Nile Basin countries. In effect, three major transformations can be pointed out that have affected the water interactions in the Nile Basin countries and led to the crisis of filling the GERD [13]:</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="116" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">First: The evolution of the political and economic bloc in East Africa, which took on an institutional character in 1999 when the East African Community Agreement was signed, which included Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, all from the Upper Nile countries. There was no doubt that this regional movement began to call for the need to review the international conventions on the Nile, particularly the 1929 Agreement between Egypt and the United Kingdom, and the Nile Water Agreement between Egypt and Sudan in 1959 concerning the establishment of the Aswan Dam in Egypt. This review signaled the first step towards rejecting the legal regime governing the Nile Basin, which was inherited from the colonial era.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="85" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Second: the strategy of the Ethiopian dams, which was adopted by the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, aims to maximize the use of Ethiopia's water potential by investing in water infrastructure. This vision entails building more than twenty dams, headed by the GERD, to achieve the goal of transforming Ethiopia into a major hydroelectric regional power. Ethiopia is seeking to produce about 8,000 megawatts of electricity over the next decade, exporting the surplus to its neighbours such as Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Egypt.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="102" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Third: Signing the Nile Basin Initiative in 1999, where all river countries, including Egypt, adopted a new vision that seeks to achieve sustainable economic and social development through unbiased and equitable use of the Nile waters. The negotiation process continued until the framework cooperation agreement was reached in 2010, which was rejected by Egypt and Sudan because it did not stipulate the natural and historical rights of the two downstream states in the Nile waters. Moreover, this initiative resulted in the withdrawal of Egypt's veto power, which it has historically enjoyed with respect to the water projects of the Upper Nile countries.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="9" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">4. Transformation in the regional 'balance of power' equation</strong></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="73" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It is not difficult to understand the prior transformations that led to the union of the Upper Nile countries under the leadership of Ethiopia, in the face of both Egypt and Sudan and rejecting the principle of relying on the Nile River's legal system inherited from the colonial era. This leads us to distinguish between three types of change and the transformation witnessed by the dynamics of interaction within the Nile Basin region.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="159" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The first change was the shift in the regional balance of power in favour of Ethiopia with the decline of Egypt's and Sudan's power. The secession of South Sudan and the re-partitioning of Somalia served as a strategic adversary of the Arab regional system in its African expansion, and at the same time was a strategic addition to neighbouring non-Arab states such as Ethiopia and Kenya, also from Upper Nile region. It can be said that the effects of the Arab Spring and the American and European war on terrorism, have strengthened Ethiopia's regional standing as a strategic ally, that can be relied upon by the United States and Europe in the Horn of Africa and East Africa. On the other hand, Egypt has resigned itself and suffered from the absence of political consensus at home as well as a lack of vision in its foreign policy, which signaled its retreat as the regional player 'to be reckoned with.'</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="144" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The second change was the shift in national governance systems in the Nile Basin countries. There has been a kind of relative political stability with a gradual increase in economic growth rates. Ethiopia presents a striking example of this. The ruling front has been able to resolve the question of national identity through the adoption of the federal formula of government and statehood since 1991 and has achieved great success in imposing security and achieving reasonable rates of economic growth. Ethiopia is, therefore, seeking to exploit its water resources not only in the production of electricity, but also in providing a large water supply that can be relied upon throughout the year in agriculture, thereby limiting the negative impact of climate change. This transformation would change Ethiopia's typecast from a state dependent on foreign aid to an energy-exporting state, thus reinforcing its regional standing.</div><div id="in-article-p-mid" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div id="aans-body-mid" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="121" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The third alteration was the shift in the issue of financing the dams and building them through various international mechanisms and institutions without relying on the traditional financing mechanisms monopolized by the World Bank, the African Development Bank or other international institutions, which required Egypt's prior approval for water projects in the Upper Nile states. The Ethiopian government has been able to promote its own dam building program through its green environment-friendly development approach to strengthen ties with the United States and Western countries. China's entry in this scene as an important player in the financing of water infrastructure construction projects in the Nile Basin countries added further complications to the Egyptian position, in the face of these new regional challenges.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="99" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The most serious of all is the transformation of public opinion in the Upper Nile countries with regards to water and the need to redistribute it among all the riparian countries of the Nile. It is striking that there are hostile tendencies against the downstream countries, especially Egypt, to the point of accusing the Egyptian policy of not taking into consideration the interests of other basin countries. As a result, the Egypt is in dire need to further analyze and reflect on the causes and justifications of these changes, to cultivate a constructive way of dealing with these developments.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="8" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5. Assessing the GERD from a different perspective</strong></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="149" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It is interesting that most of what has been written or reported on regarding the effects of the GERD on Egyptian national security was not without exaggeration or understatement. The figures and estimates expressed are merely judgments that may reflect a particular political vision or misunderstanding on many occasions. Interestingly, the Ethiopian decision to build the GERD is not surprising in itself, since Ethiopia has already built a number of dams and hydroelectric power stations on the banks of some of the tributaries and rivers in its territory. One of the most striking examples is the Gibe III Dam along the Omo River. However, these dams are not comparable to the GERD, which is expected to generate 6,000MW of electricity. This dam, if completed, will become one of the top ten dams in the world, raising Ethiopia's regional profile and placing it in the ranks of emerging African powers.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="168" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This may explain the secret of popular cohesion and political determination to move ahead with the implementation of the Ethiopian Dam package. Ethiopia's national spirit emerged with the purchase of the instruments for financing the dam by citizens from both inside and outside Ethiopia, which resulted in the extension of the financing process towards the construction of the dam itself. Interestingly, these moments of Ethiopian nationalistic pride are a reflection and a reminder of the atmosphere during Nasserite Egypt with the construction of the Aswan Dam. According to the vision of the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the GERD will achieve the interests of both Sudan and Egypt by preventing floods and providing land for irrigation. Thus, in his view, both Egypt and Sudan should contribute to the costs of building the dam by 20% to 30% each. However, according to Zenawi "due to the lack of justice in the water system of the Nile Basin countries, Ethiopia will bear alone the costs of building the dam."</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="104" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps the most difficult situation that Egypt will face is the process of filling the reservoir dam, which depends on the varied rates of rainfall. If the rates of rainfall are high, the process of filling the reservoir may take two years at most. In the case of drought and less rainfall, the filling process will take longer. Not only that, but the amount of water in the dam reservoir will have a significant impact on the flow of Nile water. In effect, the rate of water flow in the Nile will be affected at varying degrees, that is, Egypt's share of Nile water.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="196" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ethiopia seems to be aware of the magnitude of the problems that may occur when the dam's reservoir is filled. In order to avoid this, the process of filling the reservoir in a responsible manner and without preventing or detaining water from the downstream countries should be done, as it would be unacceptable according to the rules of international dealings, and would be lacking on moral grounds. The implication here is the impossibility of predicting the scopes of reservoir filling, as well as other adverse impacts of dams on the environment, such as high salinity, pollution and soil erosion in the surrounding areas. All of this may lead to the need for dialogue and negotiation amongst all parties. However, the danger of building the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam is not part of the Nile Basin Initiative, the Framework Cooperation Agreement or any bilateral agreement between Ethiopia and Egypt. It is just an Ethiopian project that is part of a national strategy to build dams and use water resources. The lack of coordination between the Nile Basin countries, especially Ethiopia and Egypt with regard to the use of water, will cause great harm to the downstream countries.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="166" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Although there are some reports warning about future water wars, historical evidence does not support this trend, as water should be a source of cooperation, not conflict. If some Egyptian leaders have threatened to use the military option to control the sources of the Nile and ensure the continuation of Egyptian hegemony, it would be very difficult to execute, as it will do more harm than good. The late President Anwar Sadat had declared that he was ready to use military force to destroy any water installations in Ethiopia that could harm Egyptian water security. Diplomatic leaks also reported that former President Hosni Mubarak asked for a military base to be built south of Khartoum, to enable Egyptian forces to hit Ethiopian water targets on the Blue Nile. In any event, any direct military action against the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam could lead to floods and landslides, as well as incalculable consequences that would harm the Egyptian-Ethiopian relations in particular and the Egyptian-Ethiopian relations in general.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="116" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A review of prevailing folklore emphasizes the concepts of competition and hostility. The biography of Saif bin Yazan, an essential figure in Mamluk culture and history, indicated the predominance of war and confrontation between the Arabs and Ethiopia. The complex location and population explains the Ethiopian public's perception of fear towards Arabs and the Arab world. Ethiopia is a landlocked nation and has a heterogeneous mix of population, which has been enshrined as "an island of Christianity amidst a sea of Islam." Moreover, the Arab stance in support of Eritrea's independence may have reinforced this Ethiopian fear, with most Ethiopians seeing that they have lost legitimate access to the sea, particularly the Port of Assab [14].</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="139" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">However, in the early seventh century, Abyssinia was the refuge and sanctuary for Muslims whom the Prophet (PBUH) had ordered to migrate there, because there was a righteous king in whose presence no one was wronged. Thus, the land of Abyssinia was a middle world (Dar al-Hijra) between the world of Islam and the war, in the history of Arabs and Muslims. In the future, Ethiopia would represent unmistakable symbolic connotations in the march for unity and the African struggle for liberation and renaissance, which reflects its embrace of the most important institutions of African common action. This means that there is a dire need for a strategic dialogue between Egypt and Ethiopia, in which all issues of common concern are discussed, as well as thinking of contemporary models and frameworks for building balanced relations between the two parties.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="128" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In any case, Egypt must adopt a clear strategic vision to deal with the Nile water issue, for the purpose of meeting the challenges of water security, in light of the remarkable transformations witnessed by the Upper Nile countries over the last ten years. The Egyptian response should be thought-provoking, as non-traditional alternatives and policies should be used, including the consideration of other projects to increase Egypt's water resources. This may necessitate the adoption of a conciliatory political and media discourse vis-a-vis Ethiopia and the Nile Basin countries, as the language of escalation and threats has always proven counterproductive. Conceivably, the best discourse is to focus on the Nile water as a source of cooperation and sustainable development for all people living on both ends of the river.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="64" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The resort to the discourse of historical interests and lack of respect for the urgent developmental demands of the Upper Nile countries is unrealistic and does not take into account the changes of geo-strategic formulation in the new Nile basin. In todays' world, the most acceptable slogan should be "no harm done and no harm bestowed" in water interactions between the Nile Basin countries.</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conclusion</strong></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="115" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We should stand against the rhetoric that calls for the drums of war and uses scare tactics when it pertains to the Nile waters and threats to Egyptian presence, by saying that we are facing a war of survival. Similarly, we reject the hate speech and incitement against Egypt adopted by some writers and officials in Upper Nile states. We must all rise above, and adopt the values of dialogue and tolerance to promote the common interests and benefits of the peoples of the Nile Basin. As the wise Imam Ali, may God have mercy on him, once said: O Malik, people are two types, either your brother in religion or your counterpart in creation."</div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="16" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">* HAMDY A. HASSAN is a Professor of Political Science at Zayed University & Cairo University.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Endnotes</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="19" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[1] Emil Ludwig and Mary H. Lindsay. The Nile: The Life-Story of a River. New York: Pyramid Books, 1963.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="14" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[2] Ahmed El Naggar Nile River: Destiny and Humans Cairo: Dar El Shorouk, 2014.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="11" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[3] Jamal Himdan, The Character of Egypt, Cairo: Alam Alkotob,1987, 787.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="16" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[4] Miriam Lichtheim. Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="12" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[5] Mohammed Hussein Heikal, Farouk Omar, Cairo: Dar Al Ma'arif, p. 167.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="14" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[6] Mohamed Sadiq Ismail, Arab water and future warsCairo: Arab Publishing and Distribution 2012</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="44" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[7] Hamdy Hassan and Ahmed al Rasheedy, "The Nile River and Egyptian Foreign Policy Interests" in Korwa G. Adar and Nicasius A. Check. Cooperative Diplomacy, Regional Stability and National Interests: The Nile River and the Riparian States. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa, 2011.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="5" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[8] Himdan op.cit, pp. 939-94.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="14" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[9] Waterbury, John. Hydropolitics of the Nile Valley. Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press, 1979.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="9" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[10] See more at: http://www.alkhaleej.ae/studiesandopinions/page/8ed7c5a1-3fd2-4d3e-9e81-2b1bcfd9ad63#sthash.pZpViFBO.dpuf Accessed on 13March 2017.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="23" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[11] Abdel Moati Zaki, the Israeli role in the water conflict in the Nile River Basin , Cairo:al Wafd Newspaper, 5 September 2011.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="25" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[12] Hamdy Hassan, Contending hegemony and the new security systems in Africa, African Journal of Political science and International Relations, Vol. 9(5), pp. 159-169, May2015.</em></div><div class="story-body-text" data-para-word-count="12" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.01); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[13] HilṃīShaʻrāwī. Afro Arab Times. Cairo: Dar El Alam El Thalith, 2005.</em></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-66085431939134519502017-08-31T00:48:00.001-07:002017-08-31T00:48:59.672-07:00ANALYSIS: River Nile politics<h1 class="name post-title entry-title" itemprop="itemReviewed" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Thing" style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 27px; font-weight: 500; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.independent.co.ug/author/mronald/" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #888888; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;" title="">RONALD MUSOKE</a><span style="color: #888888; font-family: "roboto"; font-size: 11.05px;"> </span></h1><div class="clear" style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 13px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div class="entry" style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><br /><br />
<figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_52751" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: 640px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-52751 size-full tie-appear" height="620" src="https://www.independent.co.ug/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/el-sisi.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; vertical-align: middle;" width="640" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #202021; display: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">President Kagame welcomes Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Aug1.5 COURTESY PHOTO</figcaption></figure><br /><br />
<blockquote style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div style="border-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); border-image: initial; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 4px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #999999; font-family: Georgia; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px 18px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Why President El-Sisi’s ‘shuttle diplomacy’ in East Africa could change Egypt’s fortunes</strong></div></blockquote><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | </strong>President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian head of state’s recent week-long tour of Gabon, Chad, Tanzania and Rwanda did not go unnoticed within East Africa and the other Nile Basin states.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Sisi’s tour was aimed at “consolidating Egypt’s political and economic relations as well as discussing ways of handling challenges facing Africa, especially terrorism.”</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">But his visit, particularly to Rwanda and Tanzania—the first by an Egyptian president since Abdel Gamal Nasser in 1968—was informative.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Sisi has been in power for over three years and has already visited and held talks with the presidents of Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Sisi’s visit to Tanzania and Rwanda— two countries that are part of the Nile Basin— was the third and fourth in a space of six months in East Africa.</div><div class="YmGuOzIH" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; float: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: 620px;"></div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">In February, Sisi travelled to Nairobi and held bilateral talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta. Sisi said he was in Kenya for a better deal over the use of the Nile in exchange for improved trade between the two countries. Sisi’s visit to Kenya was the first by an Egyptian president since Hosni Mubarak visited in 1984.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">“Egypt and Kenya are bound together by the common artery of the River Nile and a long history of productive cooperation,” he said.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">“We will support development in the Nile Basin countries to optimize the use of this large Nile for the good of the Nile basin countries in general.”</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Four months later, in June, Sisi visited Kampala for the first ever Nile Basin Summit organized by President Yoweri Museveni. He thanked Museveni for organizing a “historical” event, noting that the move showed the people in the Nile Basin that, “the River Nile unites us and does not separate us.”</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">With perhaps the biggest delegation of all the member countries of the Nile Basin in attendance, Sisi said Egypt had participated in the summit to build trust with its partner states and to establish a mechanism for prior notification aligning with international standards to ensure transparency over projects built on the Nile.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The Nile Basin comprises 11 countries in eastern and central Africa that either use or are the source of much of the water in the Nile. They include Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt and the DR Congo.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Egypt changes approach</strong></div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">So why has Sisi opted to change tactic and move away from the days of Hosni Mubarak who promised to protect “the waters of the Nile at all costs including using military intervention?”</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Some experts say Sisi’s change in approach over issues to do with the Nile started as soon as he took over power three years ago, preferring to show the upstream states that “the old era is gone and a new era is opened between the riparian states of the Nile and Egypt.”</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Within months of Sisi’s presidency, Egypt effectively changed its decades-old policy which consisted of retaining a monopoly on the use of the Nile waters, thanks to the generous 1959 Agreement.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-43554 tie-appear" height="785" src="https://www.independent.co.ug/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/River-nile-4.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out; vertical-align: middle;" width="640" /></div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Sisi immediately struck a more conciliatory tone, not only encouraging increased trade and investment with the rest of Africa but also in favour of negotiations over the use of the River Nile waters.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">On March 23, 2015, the leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan met in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and reached a historic agreement on principles that would open the way for broad regional cooperation on the use of the waters of the Nile.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Many saw the accord, signed by Sisi, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia and President Omar al Bashir of Sudan, as having the potential to transform a longstanding dispute over the Nile.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">“We have chosen cooperation and to trust one another for the sake of development,” Sisi said after signing the accord.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Later, Sisi boarded a plane headed for Addis Ababa where he addressed the Ethiopian Parliament telling them that “Egypt wants to turn the page in the history of relations between the two countries and establish a basis for mutual interest.”</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">“Let’s put aside the issues we have with each other. We need to work on joint responsibility,” he said.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Observers say Sisi’s rhetoric is different from his immediate predecessor, Mohamed Morsi, whose impassioned speech caught by television cameras in 2013 stopped short of declaring war against Ethiopia following the latter’s unanimous decision to go ahead and build the multi-billion dollar Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Morsi and the other Egyptian leaders’ “Big Brother” attitude has at times put Egypt on a collision course and ramped up tensions with the other nine independent countries in the Nile Basin which have distinct interests in the river’s waters.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Peter Pham, the Director of the US-based Atlantic Council’s Africa Centre noted in a recent paper that this has been the reason behind the tensions between the 11 independent countries in the Nile basin countries.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">So why then is Egypt which has in the past chosen to bully and project a confrontational attitude towards its smaller and weaker upstream partners talking of “mutual interest?”</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">George Barenzi, the dean at the School of Social Sciences at Nkumba University told <em style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The Independent</em> on Aug.17 that Sisi’s pragmaticism and military background have helped him see the reality of Egypt’s “adversaries.”</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">“In strategic terms, Sisi needed to rethink of how best Egypt could utilize River Nile, the very source of their livelihood in a manner that ensures that future prospects are guaranteed,” he said.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Prof. Sabiiti Makara, a professor of political science at Makerere University’s Department of Political Education and Public Administration also told <em style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The Independent</em> that most of the upper riparian countries are gearing towards using the Nile waters much more than they used to and, this is becoming an issue for the Egyptians.</div><div style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">“Sisi is only trying to see that Egypt gets a favourable deal,” Makara said, “He is trying to negotiate the best way the upper riparian countries can use the Nile waters for their infrastructure but also ensure that they leave enough for Egypt which solely depends on the Nile for domestic water and irrigation.”</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-33302004971558211412017-04-07T01:42:00.001-07:002017-04-07T01:42:31.107-07:00The Vanishing Nile: A Great River Faces a Multitude of Threats - Yale E360<br /><br />
<header class="article__titles " style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 57.4468%; padding: 40px 0px 35px;"><div class="article__titles-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h1 class="article__title" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Ashbury, georgia, serif; font-size: 50px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.15; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is being built on the Ethiopian-Sudanese border on the Blue Nile, which supplies 59 percent of Egypt’s water." src="http://e360.yale.edu/assets/site/_400xAUTO_stretch_center-center/2000px-River_Nile_map.svg_2trimmed.jpg" /></h1><div class="article__dek" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Ashbury, georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;">The Nile River is under assault on two fronts – a massive dam under construction upstream in Ethiopia and rising sea levels leading to saltwater intrusion downstream. These dual threats now jeopardize the future of a river that is the lifeblood for millions.</div></div><div class="article__authors-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Moderat, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 1.5px; line-height: 1.375; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="article__authors" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BY <a class="article__author-link" href="http://e360.yale.edu/authors/richard-conniff" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;">RICHARD CONNIFF</a></span> <span class="article__authors-date-bullet" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-weight: 800; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 4px;">•</span> <span class="article__date" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">APRIL 6, 2017</span></div><div class="article__authors-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Moderat, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 1.5px; line-height: 1.375; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="article__date" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam under construction in 2015. The 6,000-megawatt dam, now nearing completion, will be Africa's largest." src="http://e360.yale.edu/assets/site/_400x225_crop_center-center/GettyImages-468262194_2000px.jpg" /></span></div><div class="article-share" style="border-color: rgb(202, 198, 191); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 30px;"><ul class="article-share__list" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><li class="article-share__item" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: 30px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; width: 30px;"><a class="article-share__link article-share__link--facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fe360.yale.edu%2Ffeatures%2Fvanishing-nile-a-great-river-faces-a-multitude-of-threats-egypt-dam" style="background-image: url("/assets/img/share-icon-facebook.svg"); background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: contain; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-size: 0px; height: 32px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 100%; transition: transform 0.15s ease, -webkit-transform 0.15s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 32px;" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
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</ul></div></div></header><section class="article__body" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="article__block article__block--textBlock article__block--drop-cap article__block--drop-cap-t" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Ashbury, georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.625; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 57.4468%; padding: 0px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">Though politicians and the press tend to downplay the idea, environmental degradation is often an underlying cause of international crises — from the deforestation, erosion, and reduced agricultural production that set the stage for the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s to the prolonged drought that pushed rural populations into the cities at the start of the current Syrian civil war. Egypt could become the latest example, its <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;">95 million people</a> the likely victims of a slow motion catastrophe brought on by grand-scale environmental mismanagement.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">It’s happening now in the Nile River delta, a low-lying region fanning out from Cairo roughly a hundred miles to the sea. About 45 or 50 million people live in the delta, which represents just 2.5 percent of Egypt’s land area. The rest live in the Nile River valley itself, a ribbon of green winding through hundreds of miles of desert sand, representing another 1 percent of the nation’s total land area. Though the delta and the river together were long the source of Egypt’s wealth and greatness, they now face relentless assault from both land and sea.<img alt="An Egyptian farmer tends fields on the banks of a branch of the Nile in the river's delta." src="http://e360.yale.edu/assets/site/_400xAUTO_stretch_center-center/GettyImages-176921577_2000.jpg" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">The latest threat is a massive dam scheduled to be completed this year on the headwaters of the Blue Nile, which supplies 59 percent of Egypt’s water. Ethiopia’s national government has largely self-financed the $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), with the promise that it will generate 6,000 megawatts of power. That’s a big deal for Ethiopians, three-quarters of whom now <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/policy/the-grand-ethiopian-renaissance-dam-gets-set-to-open" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;">lack access to electricity</a>. The sale of excess electricity to other countries in the region could also bring in $1 billion a year in badly needed foreign exchange revenue.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">GERD can only begin to meet these promised benefits, however, by holding back river water that would otherwise pass down the Nile to Sudan and then Egypt, and that’s obviously a big deal for both those countries — so much so that, according to Wikileaks, government officials in Cairo <a href="http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Industry/2012/10/19/Egypt-pushes-Ethiopia-to-scrap-Nile-dam/UPI-74581350658245/?spt=hs%E2%88%A8=er" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;">at one point talked</a> about aerial bombing or a commando raid to destroy the dam. </div></div><div class="article__block article__block--imageBlock article__block--align-left article__block--has-caption-or-credit" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: none; float: left; margin: 7px 20px 15px auto; max-width: 57.4468%; padding: 0px; width: 616.594px;"><br /><br />
<figure class="article__figure" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="article__images" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="article__image-wrap" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="js-enlarge" data-caption="The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is being built on the Ethiopian-Sudanese border on the Blue Nile, which supplies 59 percent of Egypt’s water." data-credit="Yale Environment 360" href="http://e360.yale.edu/assets/site/_1500x1500_fit_center-center_80/2000px-River_Nile_map.svg_2trimmed.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; display: block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;"><img alt="The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is being built on the Ethiopian-Sudanese border on the Blue Nile, which supplies 59 percent of Egypt’s water." class="article__image" src="http://e360.yale.edu/assets/site/_400xAUTO_stretch_center-center/2000px-River_Nile_map.svg_2trimmed.jpg" sizes="(min-width: 1450px) 617px, (min-width: 1000px) 460px, (min-width: 600px) 60vw, 100vw" srcset="/assets/site/2000px-River_Nile_map.svg_2trimmed.jpg 2000w, /assets/site/_200xAUTO_stretch_center-center/2000px-River_Nile_map.svg_2trimmed.jpg 200w, /assets/site/_400xAUTO_stretch_center-center/2000px-River_Nile_map.svg_2trimmed.jpg 400w, /assets/site/_600xAUTO_stretch_center-center/2000px-River_Nile_map.svg_2trimmed.jpg 600w, /assets/site/_800xAUTO_stretch_center-center/2000px-River_Nile_map.svg_2trimmed.jpg 800w, /assets/site/_1000xAUTO_stretch_center-center/2000px-River_Nile_map.svg_2trimmed.jpg 1000w, /assets/site/_1200xAUTO_stretch_center-center/2000px-River_Nile_map.svg_2trimmed.jpg 1200w, /assets/site/_1260xAUTO_stretch_center-center/2000px-River_Nile_map.svg_2trimmed.jpg 1260w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 616.594px;" /></a></div></div><figcaption class="article__figcaption" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-color: rgb(202, 198, 191); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Moderat, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 0px 9px;"><div class="article__figcaption-p" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span class="article__caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #7c7363; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is being built on the Ethiopian-Sudanese border on the Blue Nile, which supplies 59 percent of Egypt’s water.</span> <span class="article__credit" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #7c7363; font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.075em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">YALE ENVIRONMENT 360</span></div></figcaption></figure></div><div class="article__block article__block--textBlock" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Ashbury, georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.625; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 57.4468%; padding: 0px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">The dam will create a reservoir more than twice the size of the Hoover Dam’s Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States. It will ultimately store 74 billion cubic meters of Blue Nile water. (That’s about 64 million acre feet, or the amount of water need to cover 100,000 square miles of land one foot deep.) Filling it could take anywhere from five to 15 years.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">“During this period of fill,” a <a href="http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/27/5/abstract/GSATG312A.1.htm" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;">new study</a> in the Geological Society of America’s journal <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">GSA Today</em> reports, “the Nile’s fresh water flow to Egypt may be cut by 25 percent, with a loss of a third of the electricity generated by the Aswan High Dam.” That is of course Egypt’s own massive dam on the Nile, completed in 1965, roughly 1,500 miles downstream. The GSA study, led by Smithsonian Institution geologist Jean-Daniel Stanley, says Egypt<em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </em>faces “serious country-wide freshwater and energy shortage by 2025.” Agriculture in the delta, which produces up to 60 percent of Egypt’s food, could also suffer from shortages of irrigation water.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">The <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">GSA</em> study makes clear, moreover, that the new dam is only one of a series of environmental threats now facing Egypt. Rising sea levels, brought on by climate change, are the most obvious of them. Much of the Nile Delta is only a meter or so above sea level, and a <a href="https://www.wou.edu/las/physci/taylor/es476_hydro/sefelnasr_sherif_2014_saltwater_intrusion.pdf" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;">2014 analysis</a> led by Assuit University geologist Ahmed Sefelnasr predicted that a half-meter rise in sea level would shrink the delta by 19 percent, an area equivalent to all of metropolitan Los Angeles. That was the conservative scenario. If the sea level rises by one meter in this century, as many climate scientists think likely, a third of the delta could disappear under the Mediterranean. That analysis did not consider the likely effects of the significantly greater rise predicted by a <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v531/n7596/full/nature17145.html" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;">2016 study in <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nature</em></a>. </div></div><div class="article__block article__block--pullquoteBlock" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 2em auto; max-width: 82.9787%; padding: 0px;"><blockquote class="article__pullquote" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff6654; font-family: Ashbury, georgia, serif; font-size: 42px; line-height: 1.25; margin: 2em 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">Egypt is already one of the poorest nations in the world in terms of water availability per capita.</blockquote></div><div class="article__block article__block--textBlock" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Ashbury, georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.625; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 57.4468%; padding: 0px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">It also ignored the compounding effect of land subsidence in the delta, particularly along the Mediterranean coast. In an interview, the Smithsonian’s Stanley attributed subsidence there to continuing compaction of underlying geological strata and to seismic activity. “The region is considered tectonically stable,” he said. “But it’s not inactive.” Earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater occur about every 23 years there, and “earthquake events of shallow origin and small magnitude” are frequent. The delta is also subsiding (and becoming less fertile) because it is no longer replenished each year by 100 million tons by flood sediments from the Nile. Instead, those sediments now drop out where the Nile enters the reservoir created by the Aswan High Dam. A new delta is now forming there, but underwater. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07900629550042407?journalCode=cijw20" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;">Other studies</a> have attributed increased seismic activity in the region to the weight of the dam and the water stored behind it.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">In addition to the almost certain loss of land area in the delta, the combination of sea level rise and land subsidence will also increase saltwater intrusion. Egypt is already one of the poorest nations in the world in terms of water availability per capita; it has just 660 cubic meters of freshwater a year for each resident, compared, for instance, to 9,800 cubic meters in the United States. But according to the Sefelnasr study, saltwater intrusion from a one-meter rise in sea level could jeopardize more than a third of the freshwater volume in the delta. “If you talk to farmers in the northern delta,” said Stanley, “they will tell you they have lost production consistently, and that saline wedge is moving toward the middle of the delta. So it doesn’t look like a very happy thing,” especially with Egypt’s population set to double over the next 50 years.</div></div><div class="article__block article__block--imageBlock article__block--align-center article__block--has-caption-or-credit" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; margin: 40px auto 40px 214.438px; max-width: 82.9787%; padding: 0px;"><br /><br />
<figure class="article__figure" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="article__images" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 830.984px;"><div class="article__image-wrap" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="js-enlarge" data-caption="An Egyptian farmer tends fields on the banks of a branch of the Nile in the river's delta." data-credit="GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images " href="http://e360.yale.edu/assets/site/_1500x1500_fit_center-center_80/GettyImages-176921577_2000.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; display: block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;"><img alt="An Egyptian farmer tends fields on the banks of a branch of the Nile in the river's delta." class="article__image" src="http://e360.yale.edu/assets/site/_400xAUTO_stretch_center-center/GettyImages-176921577_2000.jpg" sizes="(min-width: 1450px) 832px, (min-width: 620px) 620px, 100vw" srcset="/assets/site/GettyImages-176921577_2000.jpg 2000w, /assets/site/_200xAUTO_stretch_center-center/GettyImages-176921577_2000.jpg 200w, /assets/site/_400xAUTO_stretch_center-center/GettyImages-176921577_2000.jpg 400w, /assets/site/_600xAUTO_stretch_center-center/GettyImages-176921577_2000.jpg 600w, /assets/site/_800xAUTO_stretch_center-center/GettyImages-176921577_2000.jpg 800w, /assets/site/_1000xAUTO_stretch_center-center/GettyImages-176921577_2000.jpg 1000w, /assets/site/_1200xAUTO_stretch_center-center/GettyImages-176921577_2000.jpg 1200w, /assets/site/_1260xAUTO_stretch_center-center/GettyImages-176921577_2000.jpg 1260w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 830.984px;" /></a></div></div><figcaption class="article__figcaption" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-color: rgb(202, 198, 191); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; font-family: Moderat, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.375; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 0px 9px; width: 190.063px;"><div class="article__figcaption-p" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;"><span class="article__caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #7c7363; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">An Egyptian farmer tends fields on the banks of a branch of the Nile in the river's delta.</span><span class="article__credit" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #7c7363; font-size: 11px; letter-spacing: 0.075em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES </span></div></figcaption></figure></div><div class="article__block article__block--textBlock" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Ashbury, georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.625; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 57.4468%; padding: 0px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">So how should Egypt, with its struggling economy and recent history of political unrest, address what are plainly life-threatening challenges? Despite the loose talk about destroying the Ethiopian dam, war appears highly unlikely. In 2015, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan signed a mutual <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/02/18/Egypt-s-Renaissance-Dam-fears-remain-despite-diplomatic-efforts-.html" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;">do-no-harm agreement</a>, and just this past January, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi <a href="http://www.nazret.com/2017/01/29/egypts-president-sisi-to-meet-with-ethiopian-pm-in-addis-ababa/" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;">met in Addis Ababa</a>, on apparently cordial terms, with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. But a formal agreement on exactly how to share Nile resources is still lacking.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">Ethiopia could minimize the immediate downstream damage by lengthening the time it takes to fill the reservoir. But that means delaying the benefits of the dam, which Ethiopia may already have oversold. The river flow will produce the promised 6,000-megawatt output only during peak periods, according to Asfaw Beyene, a mechanical engineering professor at San Diego State University. He notes that the Italian company building the dam also performed the initial feasibility studies, an obvious conflict of interest because of the potential to inflate costs and profits by installing excess capacity. Beyene calculates that even a 2,000-megawatt rating might have been “a little excessive.”</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">Pressure to get a return on its investments could make Ethiopia less likely to delay. Egypt in any case has little ground for negotiating a favorable deal, said Harry Verhoeven, a professor of African politics at Georgetown University. It has always asserted its right to the lion’s share of Nile River water, formalizing that claim in the 1959 Nile Waters Agreements, with little regard to the needs of upstream countries. Hosni Mubarak compounded that slight during his long reign as Egypt’s president, taking other Nile Basin countries for granted and effectively withdrawing from the rest of Africa. “In that sense, it’s hard to feel sorry for Egypt,” said Verhoefen.</div></div><div class="article__block article__block--pullquoteBlock" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 2em auto; max-width: 82.9787%; padding: 0px;"><blockquote class="article__pullquote" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff6654; font-family: Ashbury, georgia, serif; font-size: 42px; line-height: 1.25; margin: 2em 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">Ethiopia has rebuilt its economy and asserted control over Nile waters that are the region’s lifeblood.</blockquote></div><div class="article__block article__block--textBlock" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Ashbury, georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.625; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 57.4468%; padding: 0px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">Meanwhile, “as Egypt slept,” an “extremely competent” government in Ethiopia has rebuilt its economy, deftly worked with both U.S. and Chinese interests, and launched what Verhoeven characterized as “a hydropolitical offensive to re-order the region,” not just in political or theoretical terms, but on the ground, by asserting control over the Nile waters that are the region’s lifeblood. The United States could perhaps serve as an honest broker to negotiate a compromise between Egypt and Ethiopia. It has until recently played an important role working behind the scenes with both Cairo and Addis Ababa (a key ally on conflicts in Somalia and South Sudan). But under President Trump, said Verhoeven, both the National Security Council and the U.S. State Department have demonstrated little interest in Africa.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">At this point, said the Smithsonian’s Stanley, Egypt needs to invest in desalinization for fresh water, like Saudi Arabia, and water-saving drip irrigation, like Israel. With Egypt now also facing a “<a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/01/egypt-medication-price-increase-black-market-contraceptive.html" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228); box-sizing: border-box; color: #ec5240; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear;">contraceptive crisis</a>,” better government investment in family planning would also help for the longer term. But with the Nile no longer their birthright, and the Nile delta gradually disappearing into the sea, millions of Egypt’s people will inevitably need to look elsewhere for a livable future.</div></div></section><footer class="article__block article__footer" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 1em; max-width: 57.4468%; padding: 0px;"><div class="article-share" style="background-color: #fcfaf6; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: Ashbury, georgia, serif; font-size: 10.46px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 30px;"><ul class="article-share__list" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><li class="article-share__item" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: 30px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; width: 30px;"><a class="article-share__link article-share__link--facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fe360.yale.edu%2Ffeatures%2Fvanishing-nile-a-great-river-faces-a-multitude-of-threats-egypt-dam" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url("/assets/img/share-icon-facebook.svg"); background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: contain; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-size: 0px; height: 32px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 100%; transition: transform 0.15s ease, -webkit-transform 0.15s ease; white-space: nowrap; width: 32px;" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4i2QNEUfWbs" width="560"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-30154559789474782392017-03-08T06:56:00.001-08:002017-03-08T07:36:55.658-08:00Three Maps Show How Water Access Can Make Or Break A Nation - ValueWalk<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Access <a href="http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/10/water-investments-michael-burry/" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5470c0;">to and control over</a> water is a strategic imperative for all countries. As such, it has been a source of conflict throughout history.</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Water access can impact a country’s geopolitics in many ways. The first (and one of the most obvious) is sea access. Access to the world’s oceans enables a country to use major maritime shipping routes. It also opens an additional route by which a country could project force by having a navy.</span></div>
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The need to gain and maintain ocean access can lead to war. One major factor in the War of the Pacific in South America (1879-1883) was control over access to the southern Pacific. Bolivia lost its ocean access as a result of this war, and to this day, continues to seek ways to recover it.</div>
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A more current example is <a href="http://www.mauldineconomics.com/this-week-in-geopolitics/forecasting-russia-in-2017" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5470c0;">Russia’s invasion of Crimea</a>. The goal here was to create a larger buffer around Russian naval facilities in Sevastopol.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Mighty Mississippi</strong></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="" src="http://ggc-mauldin-images.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/editorial/map1.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></strong></div>
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Access to waterways also clearly impacts trade. Rivers provide cheaper means of shipping goods to port for export. This makes a country’s exports more competitive.</div>
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I’ve written extensively about <a href="http://www.mauldineconomics.com/this-week-in-geopolitics/the-strategy-of-the-united-states" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5470c0;">US strategy as it applies to water access</a> in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">This Week in Geopolitics </em>(<a href="http://www.mauldineconomics.com/subscribe-twig" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5470c0;">subscribe here for free</a>). One of the most strategic riverways in the world is the Mississippi River system in the US.</div>
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Two great rivers, the Missouri and the Ohio, flow into the Mississippi. This river system is navigable and empties into the Gulf of Mexico.</div>
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This waterway allows virtually any part of the land between the Rockies and Appalachians to ship goods inexpensively through this river system and on to other countries.</div>
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In this case, the US acquired these lands primarily through the Louisiana Purchase. That was followed by a war with Mexico and the annexation of Texas. This led to the expansion of a buffer zone to the west of the Mississippi River.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Nile</strong></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="" src="http://ggc-mauldin-images.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/editorial/map21.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></strong></div>
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Rivers can also be sources of power in terms of relations between states. This is the case with the Nile River.</div>
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Approximately 85% of all water reaching the Nile River in Egypt originates in Ethiopia from the Blue Nile, Atbara, and Sobat rivers. Of these rivers, the most important is the Blue Nile. It accounts for nearly 60% of the Nile’s water in Egypt.</div>
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Given that Egypt is mostly a desert climate, the country depends on the river for water and agriculture. At present, Egypt has concerns over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (which should be operational this year). Any moves made by Ethiopia that affect water flow or quality could jeopardize water access downstream.</div>
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So far, this concern has been dealt with through diplomacy. But in the mid-1870s, the Khedevite of Egypt invaded Ethiopia via Eritrea in an attempt to gain control of the Nile River. This war lasted for two years.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Syria’s Droughts</strong></div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="" src="http://ggc-mauldin-images.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/editorial/map3.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></strong></div>
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The absence of water can indirectly lead to conflict. This map shows areas in Syria where there were six or more years of drought from 2000 to 2010. Prolonged droughts can destroy a region’s agriculture and livestock, exposing local food supplies to great risk.</div>
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<a href="http://www.mauldineconomics.com/this-week-in-geopolitics/the-middle-east-the-way-it-is-and-why" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5470c0;">The Islamic State took control of some of this territory</a> only a few years after the drought. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction published a study in 2011 that looked at this drought. The report implies that <a href="http://www.mauldineconomics.com/this-week-in-geopolitics/the-geopolitics-of-2017-in-4-maps" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5470c0;">social and economic ruin caused by drought</a> contributed to the rise of IS.</div>
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Historians have also noted a correlation between major famine due to drought in Ethiopia and the fall of regimes, such as the Derg.</div>
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While drought in these cases did not serve as a direct trigger for observed violence, there is a strong correlation between the absence of water and <a href="http://www.mauldineconomics.com/this-week-in-geopolitics/why-syria-matters-to-you" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5470c0;">social and economic instability</a>.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Importance of Access</strong></div>
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Water has an underlying geopolitical importance. Access and control over this feature can provide strategic standing to a country. In some cases, it can even enhance this standing in terms of military projection, trade, domestic stability, and leverage over other countries. For this reason, water can be a great source of conflict among nations… <a href="http://www.mauldineconomics.com/this-week-in-geopolitics/the-geopolitics-of-2017-in-4-maps" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5470c0;">conflict that has the potential to rise to the level of warfare</a>.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-80159474729628967062016-04-24T04:11:00.001-07:002016-04-24T04:11:46.576-07:00Somalia President scotches claims over Shabelle River closure: "Somalia President scotches claims over Shabelle River closure<br />
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MOGADISHU, Somalia-Ethiopian authorities cannot stop the flow of Shabelle river water into downstream Somalia, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told VOA Somali Service. <br />
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Mohamud made remarks in Washington after reports of large scale water diversion in the Somali region of Ethiopia surfaced. <br />
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Somali President added that it is not possible for Ethiopia to make overutilization upstream at the expense of Somalia in line with international water principles. <br />
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Last month, Shabelle River that is dependent on runoffs of Ethiopian highlands dried up, and prompted debates on whether water resource projects in Ethiopia could be the reason. <br />
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Somalia will be investigating the matter, Mohamud disclosed. <br />
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Thousands of farmers in central and southern Somalia use Shabelle and Juba Rivers water for irrigation. <br />
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El Nino-induced drought and severe water shortages have affected considerable swathes in Somalia for months.<br />
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GAROWEONLINE"<br /><br />
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<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-35389593781950293692016-02-22T02:12:00.001-08:002016-02-22T02:12:22.491-08:00Is It Possible for Egypt and Ethiopia to Share the Nile? | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #252324; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 26px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></h1><div class="meta" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #a2a2a2; float: left; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 4px 0px 10px; padding: 0px 0px 7px; text-transform: uppercase; width: 630px;"><span class="date" style="background: url("images/date.png") 0px -3px no-repeat; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px;">FEBRUARY 19, 2016 5:12 AM</span> <span class="comments" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/02/19/is-it-possible-for-egypt-and-ethiopia-to-share-the-nile/#comments" style="background: url("images/comments.png") 0px 2px no-repeat; color: #a2a2a2; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; text-decoration: none;">4 COMMENTS</a></span></div><div class="meta_box" style="background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: 1px solid rgb(231, 227, 227); color: #252324; float: right; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 4px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 0px; width: 118px;"><div id="auth" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><h4 style="color: #595d67; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 5px;">Author:</h4><img alt="avatar" class="avatar avatar-60 avatar-default" src="http://49yzp92imhtx8radn224z7y1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/themes/tribune/images/avatar/daniel_pipes-avatar.jpg" height="60" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); height: 60px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 2px; width: 60px;" width="60" /><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.algemeiner.com/author/daniel-pipes/" rel="author" style="color: #595d67; display: block; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px 7px; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Daniel Pipes">Daniel Pipes</a></strong></div><div class="hr" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: both; float: left; height: 1px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; width: 118px;"></div><h4 style="color: #595d67; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 5px;">Share this Article</h4><ul style="float: left; list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: none; margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 8px 0px 0px;"><li style="color: #595d67; float: left; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 5px 8px; text-transform: uppercase; width: 110px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Is%20It%20Possible%20for%20Egypt%20and%20Ethiopia%20to%20Share%20the%20Nile?%20http://www.algemeiner.com/?p=311436" style="color: #595d67; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Twitter" src="http://49yzp92imhtx8radn224z7y1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/themes/tribune/images/icons/small/twitter.png" style="border: none; float: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: middle;" />TWITTER</a></li>
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<div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #999999; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.</div></div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Oil is the Middle East’s glamor product, sought after by the entire world and bringing the region <a href="http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Bram_Stoker/Dracula/CHAPTER_12_p10.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #004276; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">wealth beyond the dream of avarice</a>. But water is the mundane resource that matters even more to locals for, without it, they face the horrible choice of leaving their homes or perishing within them.</div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">That choice may sound hyperbolic, but <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/15815/the-middle-east-runs-out-of-water" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #004276; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">the threat is real</a>. Egypt stands out as having the largest population at risk and being the country, other than <a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2007/11/the-latest-about-mosul-dam" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #004276; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Iraq</a> and <a href="http://www.merip.org/mer/mer254/water-conflict-cooperation-yemen" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #004276; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Yemen</a>, with the most existential hydrologic problem.</div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">As every schoolchild learns, Egypt is the gift of the Nile and the Nile is by far the globe’s longest river. Less well known is that most of the Nile’s volume, 90 percent, comes from the highlands of Ethiopia and that the river passes through 11 countries. For uncounted eons, its water flowed to Egypt in uncounted quantities.</div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">In 1929, the British government, representing Egypt, signed an agreement with the independent government of Ethiopia guaranteeing an annual flow of 55.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of water to Egypt. Counting a minimum of 1,000 cubic meters per capita per annum (the average worldwide is 7,230 cubic meters), that amount more than sufficed for the 15 million Egyptians of the day.</div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">The succeeding 87 years saw Egypt’s population increase six times until today it numbers 90 million. Adding to the river’s 55.5 bcm, Egypt gets about 5 bcm from non-renewable underground sources and 1.3 bcm from rain, leaving it with about 62 bcm a year, or one-third less than the country’s minimal needs. In addition, Egyptians recycle about 10 bcm of agricultural runoff water, whose highly polluted nature (fertilizer and insecticide residues) eventually kill the land by salinizing it. Exacerbating this shortage, Egypt’s high temperatures leads to higher rates of evapotranspiration, requiring more water for agriculture than in places with cooler climates.</div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">This water shortfall translates into a need to import food and, at present, Egypt must borrow funds to import an alarming 32 percent of its sugar needs, 60 percent of yellow feed corn, 70 percent of wheat, 70 percent of beans, 97 percent of food oil, and 100 percent of lentils. The need to import will get worse with time; estimating Egypt’s population at 135 million in 2050, it will need 135 bcm annually and, based on present assumptions, the water deficit will more than double to 75 bcm.</div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Making matters worse, Ethiopians recently woke up to the fact that vast quantities of water leave their territories without any benefit to themselves. Accordingly, they initiated a network of dams, culminating with the pompously named Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).</div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">As presently planned, the lake behind this dam would hold 74.5 bcm, plus 5 bcm would be lost through seepage and 5 bcm lost to evaporation. Four auxiliary upstream dams to reduce silting will retain another 200 bcm. Noting that 86 percent of Egypt’s water originates in Ethiopia, Egyptian specialists not unreasonably conclude that the allotted 55.5 bcm would not be forthcoming. <a href="http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/15382/31/Egypt%E2%80%99s-water-concerns.aspx" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #004276; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Nader Noureddin</a>, professor of soil and water sciences at Cairo University, sees the dams placing “the lives of 90 million Egyptians at risk.” (Most statistics in this analysis derive from Noureddin’s work.)</div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://ethiopia-chat.com/benefits-of-great-ethiopian-renaissance-dam-gerd-to-egypt-and-sudan/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #004276; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Ethiopians reply</a>: Not to worry, all will be fine, the guaranteed allotment and more will reach Egypt. When Cairo protests nonetheless, Addis Ababa agrees to one study after another, even as it furiously builds the GERD, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2016, storing an initial 14 bcm.</div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">The potential for disruption is enormous; in 2013, during the Mohamed Morsi era, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSxkori-tPw" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #004276; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Egyptian politicians</a>inadvertently bruited in public their military plans about special forces, jet fighters, and rebel groups to deal with the GERD (shades of the opera <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3w4I-KElxQ" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #004276; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Aïda</em></a>). Morsi now sits in jail but such ideas offer insight into Egyptian desperation.</div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">At base, the Nile River confrontation lies in variant understandings of water possession. Downstream states like Egypt point to the immemorial nature of rivers flowing across borders. Upstream states like Ethiopia point to the water belonging to them in the same way that oil belongs to the Arabs. There is no right or wrong here; resolution requires creative compromise (for example, by lowering the height of GERD saddle dams), allowing the Ethiopians to benefit from their waters without Egyptians facing cataclysm.</div><div style="line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">Short term, statesmen are needed to prevent disaster. Long term, Egyptians need to <a href="http://www.sethmsiegel.com/book/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #004276; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">learn</a> how to manage water more resourcefully.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-76497794376811220122015-12-27T04:07:00.001-08:002015-12-27T04:07:00.873-08:00Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan ministers to meet Sunday | Egypt Independent<div class="panels-flexible-row panels-flexible-row-161-main-row panels-flexible-row-first clear-block EI_article_title" style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="inside panels-flexible-row-inside panels-flexible-row-161-main-row-inside panels-flexible-row-inside-first clear-block" style="word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="panels-flexible-region panels-flexible-region-161-center panels-flexible-region-first panels-flexible-region-last " style="word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="inside panels-flexible-region-inside panels-flexible-region-161-center-inside panels-flexible-region-inside-first panels-flexible-region-inside-last" style="word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="panel-pane pane-node-title" style="border-top-color: rgb(204, 0, 0); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 3px; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="pane-content" style="word-wrap: break-word;">Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan ministers to meet Sunday</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="panels-flexible-row panels-flexible-row-161-5 clear-block EI_article_credits" style="background-color: #cc0000; color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 25px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 5px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="inside panels-flexible-row-inside panels-flexible-row-161-5-inside clear-block" style="word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="panels-flexible-region panels-flexible-region-161-credits panels-flexible-region-first panels-flexible-region-last EI_article_credits" style="word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="inside panels-flexible-region-inside panels-flexible-region-161-credits-inside panels-flexible-region-inside-first panels-flexible-region-inside-last" style="word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="panel-pane pane-content-field pane-field-published-date" style="float: left; 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</span></div></div><div class="panel-region-separator" style="word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-content-field pane-field-source" style="border-top-color: rgb(192, 192, 192); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; clear: both; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="pane-content" style="word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="field field-type-nodereference field-field-source" style="word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="field-items" style="word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="field-item odd" style="word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="http://www.egyptindependent.com//staff/al-masry-al-youm" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.498039); text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Al-Masry Al-Youm</a></div></div></div></div></div><div class="panel-region-separator" style="word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-node-body" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(192, 192, 192); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="pane-content" style="word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="word-wrap: break-word;">A six-party meeting of Foreign and Irrigation ministers from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, will begin on Sunday amid fears of repeating previous negotiation failures.</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;">The three countries hope to agree on the issues related to the studies done on the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;">The three parties are looking to sign a document that governs the results of the studies, in order to ensure they are committed to negotiations following the announcement of these results.</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;">Official Egyptian sources said the six-party meeting will occur amid political conditions that urge the three countries to reach a compromise in order to meet the aspirations of the countries' peoples with regards to development.</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;">The ministers of the three countries are resolved to ending the controversy and tension which have been ongoing for the past five years, ever since the foundations for the Renaissance Dam were laid in 2011. Tensions could enter a new phase next year, as Ethiopia plans to conclude the first phase of the project and announce the storing of 14 billion cubic meters of the Nile water, the sources added.</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;">The next meeting seeks to develop an appropriate mechanism for the road map to activate the agreement of principles on the ground, especially those related to the fifth item of the agreement which governs the start and duration of water storage in the dam throughout the year, said Water Resources Minister Hossam Moghazi.</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;">A mechanism to respond to Egyptian concerns will be developed during the meeting, said Moghazi, stressing that the six-party meeting will complete the final version for the road map agreed upon in Khartoum, as well as Malabo's statement.</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;"></div><div style="word-wrap: break-word;">Once the three countries agree on the points of contention, the six-party meeting's role will end. Substantive technical negotiations will then begin, said Moghazi, stressing that negotiations are the only means to end the dispute on the technical studies of the dam.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-45101512339515688132015-12-01T00:27:00.001-08:002015-12-01T00:27:29.688-08:00The Nile Basin challenges and opportunities - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan<div style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">By Mohamed Yassin</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">The Nile Basin is an extended unique and rich territory in the African continent, which extends over diverse climatic regimes. Currently, the Nile basin is hosting almost half billion inhabitants (more than 42% of the African total population) and projected to double its populations in a rapid pattern within this century to reach around half of the continent projected population. The Nile Basin is endowed with significant natural resources and considerable biodiversity heritage. The Nile Basin has been and continues to host important civilizations and natural biospheres. The current political composition of the Nile Basin is eleven sovereign riparian states, namely Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Each of those riparian states has its own challenges and opportunities in terms of proper development, socioeconomic growth and prosperity. Ideally, each riparian can address its own challenges and harvest its untapped opportunities, but in reality each one is interdependent and interconnected with the other adjacent or non-adjacent riparian states in a way or another.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">The Nile River is the common binding natural resources for all that countries and historically has been a founding fountain of livelihood for all within the Nile Basin and continue to be an important connection with Mediterranean and Asian populations and rest of the world. These countries have embarked in international and transboundary cooperation and dialogue for the water management, usage and development through diverse fora such as the Nile Basin Initiative with its secretariat in Uganda, Entebbe and the subsidiary offices in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa and Rwanda, Kigali. However, most of those efforts were limited only on conflictive focus on the water in separation from the rest of the ecological base and foundation and the supplementary tangible and intangible resources necessary for sustaining a sustainable livelihood in a comprehensive setting. Historically the management of Nile Basin resources have been managed in cooperative and competitive styles depending on epochal phases.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">In the contemporary situation, these riparian countries need to have cooperative and sound competitive concerted and coordinated actions. That is a must need to foster the socio-economic development and its sustainability. Of course, each riparian country needs to reconcile its developmental needs and priorities with that of sister riparian country. Any unilateral actions to exploit monopolize the sharable benefits from the River Nile and its ecosystems will results in harmful impacts and outcomes for the very and single actor. It will be impossible for a single riparian country to monopolize the benefits and have the lion share of the River Nile, what so ever it is, unless the riparian countries merge in single institutional body united under the Nile Basin, for example an imaginable and possible the Nile Basin Community. That unionistic and mutualistic transformation might results in more beneficial, supportive, consolidating and solidarity spirit among the integrateable territories of the Nile Basin. All the Nile Basin riparian states as the rest of the planet are facing the challenge of how to reconcile the sustainable development and prosperity with the nature conservations and environmental protection.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">The cooperation, collaboration and coordination of the sustainable management of the Nile Basin territorial capital, goes beyond a mandate of single line ministry of irrigation and water resources. A shift to a more inclusive, comprehensive, holistic and participatory approaches are imperative needs for all the Nile Basin community and that shoulders huge responsibilities on those who are currently leading the policy making and formulating the regional planning for the populations of the Nile Basin. All the Nile Basin states have a non-disputable right to carry on its national and strategic developmental short, medium and long terms plans and visions. All are facing challenging and complex food and nutrition security issues dictated by limited resources and growing demography, environmental and climate related challenges coupled with undergoing processes of industrialization and exploitation of the natural endowments, conservation of heritage and erection of infrastructures to sustain the territorial, socio-economic transformation and political stability and dynamics.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">If we consider the infrastructures for the hydropower production and distribution, irrigation and resource management needed to boost the sustainable development in the Blue and Eastern Nile countries, namely Egypt, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Sudan, comprehensively we can count around fifteen existing hydropower projects. With diverse developmental status among and within these four riparian countries, and if we go further deeper and extract the planned hydropower projects featuring in their national plans, we will notice that there are around twenty five, more or less new hydropower projects to be erected (See attached maps of the Nile Basin Initiative) to guarantee power security and socio-economic development and stability.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">The current dispute and conflictive atmosphere created upon the under construction Millennium or Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is just one spot in the wider developmental scenario which will be witnessed in that Eastern Nile Region. Ethiopia is naturally gifted and endowed with considerable magnitude of water and high lands which qualify it to be an important Hydropower production hub, which can secure its energy needs and goes beyond to supply the region. At the same time, other parts of the region have its endowments which are not equally available among the Ethiopian natural capital and that could be compensate through analogues regional trade (Theory of comparative advantage and international trade can apply and fit the situation).</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">If we consider the Newly independent republic of South Sudan, we notice that currently it has zero hydropower plant and in its national strategic plans, it is qualified to erect around four hydropower projects which are Fula, Shukoli, Lakki and Bedden, and Sudan has plans to erect numerous new dams in addition to the newly terminated Morowe dam, these are Dal Low and Dal High, Kagbar, Dagash, Shereik and Sabaloka dams. While Egypt has a planned new dam at Assiut / Asyut. Doubtless, the erection of all that planned hydropower plants and projects will have huge socio-economic, environmental, ecological, landscape and territorial transformations and impacts, negative be it or positive. Surely that makes the cooperation among these directly engaged riparian countries as well as the rest of the Nile Basin Countries an non escapable necessity.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">The future scenarios require frank dialogue and courageous confrontations putting a Nile Basin integrated community as top priority to address the current and latent challenges and at the same time work collectively to share the potential benefits of the expected positive and contractive transformation.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><i>Mohamed Yassin is a Sudanese and Italian PhD candidate (2013-2015) in Economics, Ecology, Landscape and Territory at the Department of Civil Engineering & Architecture, University of Udine, Italy. He holds B.Sc. in Agricultural and Rural Economy (UoK Sudan), PGD in Rural development in Developing countries, PGD in International Development Cooperation, Masters in International Business Import Export Management and a M.Sc. in International Veterinary Cooperation (Italy). He has been visiting scholar at the University of Minnesota (USA) where he conducted research works on the Nile Basin. He is reachable at E: mohamed.yassin@uniud.it E: yassintowers@gmail.com</i></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-34882317795921353732015-11-22T03:45:00.001-08:002015-11-22T03:45:19.743-08:00China funds cross-border water project between Djibouti and Ethiopia - YouTube<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFCYkcLBOPs">China funds cross-border water project between Djibouti and Ethiopia - YouTube</a>: "<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BFCYkcLBOPs" width="560"></iframe>"<br /><br />
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<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-28378531484913549712015-03-26T02:18:00.001-07:002015-03-26T02:18:55.562-07:00Djibouti-Ethiopia water project launched | Shanghai Daily<h2 style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></h2><div class="detail_content" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">DJIBOUTI, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh on Sunday officially launched the cross-border water supply project between Ethiopia and Djibouti, in the country's southern town of Ali-Sabieh.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The event which was attended by a strong ministerial delegation from Ethiopia, coincided with the celebrations to mark the World Water Day.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The project involves supply of groundwater from Ethiopia's Hadagalla town to Djibouti's key towns of Ali-Sabieh, Dikhil, Arta and the capital</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Through the project, Djibouti will be freely receiving 100,000 cubic meters of water daily for the next 20 years.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The project whose cost was estimated to be 22 million U.S. dollars that was provided by China Exim Bank, will be implemented by CGCOC, a Chinese company that also won the tender to construct a road linking the two countries.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">With the launch of this project, the Djiboutian government hopes to end the perennial water problem and embark on achieving its long term development programs.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Guelleh said with this project, his country had managed to win the battle against water shortage which had always been an obstacle to Djibouti's development.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">With an annual average of 200 mm of rain water per year in most parts of its national territory, Djibouti has always been classified as a country in a chronic water stress situation.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Drought, famine and their corollary consequences such as nomadic movement, impoverishment of the rural population and death of animals have worsened the situation, making local authorities to prioritize water shortage since the country's independence 38 years ago.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Speaking after the ceremony, Djibouti president hailed the existing economic partnership between his country and China.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">"I particularly want to thank China. We are grateful to have China as our first economic partner," Guelleh said, adding that his country had excellent relations with China.</div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17.25px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">"China has always been on our side, it has trusted us and it is not like other countries that criticize our choices. On behalf of the Djiboutian government and people, I want to say thank you to the People's Republic of China," he concluded.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-76722695580801132142015-03-24T00:52:00.001-07:002015-03-24T00:52:26.937-07:00Sudan: Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan Sign Deal on Water Sharing - NYTimes.com<br /><br />
<header class="story-header" id="story-header" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 16px; position: relative;"><div class="story-meta " id="story-meta" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"><div class="story-meta-footer" id="story-meta-footer" style="border-top-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; padding-top: 2px;"><div class="byline-dateline" style="float: left; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; margin-right: 45px; margin-top: 4px;"><span class="byline" itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="font-family: nyt-cheltenham-sh, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 0.6875rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: 0.75rem;">By <span class="byline-author" data-byline-name="THE ASSOCIATED PRESS" itemprop="name">THE ASSOCIATED PRESS</span></span><time class="dateline" datetime="2015-03-23" style="color: black; font-family: nyt-cheltenham-sh, georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 0.6875rem; line-height: 0.75rem; margin-left: 12px;">MARCH 23, 2015</time></div></div></div></header><br /><br />
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</ul><div class="ad sharetools-inline-article-ad nocontent robots-nocontent" id="Frame4A"><a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/world/africa/sudan-egypt-ethiopia-and-sudan-sign-deal-on-water-sharing.html?_r=0#story-continues-1" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px 0px 0px 0px); color: #326891; height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; width: 1px;">Continue reading the main story</a><iframe class="ad-frame frame-for-article" frameborder="0" style="border-style: none; height: 60px; width: 96px;"></iframe></div></div></div><div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="742" data-total-count="742" id="story-continues-1" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.4375rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 135px; max-width: 540px; width: 532px;"><a class="meta-loc" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/egypt/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" style="color: #326891;" title="More news and information about Egypt.">Egypt</a>, <a class="meta-loc" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/ethiopia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" style="color: #326891;" title="More news and information about Ethiopia.">Ethiopia</a> and <a class="meta-loc" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/sudan/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" style="color: #326891;" title="More news and information about Sudan.">Sudan</a> signed an initial agreement Monday on sharing water from the Nile, which runs through all three, as Ethiopia presses ahead with its construction of a massive new dam it hopes will help alleviate the country’s power shortages. The dam had been an issue of contention among the countries, with Egypt concerned it would reduce its share of the Nile established under a colonial-era agreement. But on Monday, leaders of the three nations welcomed the agreement in speeches in Khartoum. It outlines principles by which they are to cooperate to use the water fairly and resolve any potential disputes peacefully, leaving details on specific procedures to be determined later after the release of joint, expert studies.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-75406351879632130452015-03-22T07:55:00.001-07:002015-03-22T07:55:11.304-07:00Nile River Nations Agree to Cooperate, but Danger Lurks for One of Planet’s Great Wetlands – (blog) National Geographic<br /><br />
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<header class="header" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; height: auto !important; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 20px; min-height: 65px; padding-left: 78px; position: relative;"><h1 class="title entry-title" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.272727; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-overflow: ellipsis; vertical-align: baseline;"></h1><div class="byline vcard author" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #666666; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="avatar avatar-58 photo" src="http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2012/02/sandra-headshot-th-58x58.jpg" height="58" style="background: transparent; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); height: auto; left: 0px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 3px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="58" />Posted by <span class="fn" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/author/spostel/" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #044e8e; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by Sandra Postel">Sandra Postel</a></span> of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in <a href="http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/blog/water-currents/" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #044e8e; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Water Currents</a> on<abbr class="published" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="2015-03-20T06:00:42+00:00">March 20, 2015</abbr></div></header><br /><br />
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<figure aria-labelledby="figcaption_attachment_157577" class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_157577" style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 20px; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px;"><img alt="The beginning of the Blue Nile near its outlet from Lake Tana in the highlands of Ethiopia. Photo by Ondrej Zvácek/Creative Commons" class="size-large wp-image-157577" src="http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2015/03/Beginning-of-Blue_Nile-1024x768.jpg" height="768" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="1024" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="figcaption_attachment_157577" style="color: #777777; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 4px;">The beginning of the Blue Nile near its outlet from Lake Tana in the highlands of Ethiopia. Photo by Ondrej Zvácek/Creative Commons</figcaption></figure><br /><br />
<div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Earlier this month, the foreign ministers of Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/sudan-egypt-and-ethiopia-reach-agreement-on-use-of-nile-waters" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #044e8e; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">reached agreement</a> on basic principles for managing what will be Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam, which is now under construction on the Blue Nile near the Ethiopian-Sudanese border.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">While the unilateral building of big dams is often <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/11/18/dehydrating-conflict/" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #044e8e; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a trigger for conflict</a> in international river basins, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has the potential to forge much-needed cooperation and some win-win opportunities for those three Nile Basin countries.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Although its details have yet to be disclosed, the agreement would appear to open pathways to shared economic benefits from the Nile’s waters as well as to greater flexibility and resilience in times of drought.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But it also creates conditions for the resurrection of an engineering scheme in South Sudan that could harm one of the largest and most wildlife-rich wetlands in the world.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A Complicated History</strong></div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Nile Basin now has 11 countries within it, but the two most downstream – Egypt and Sudan – have staked claims to the entire river’s flow.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Blue Nile originates in the highlands of Ethiopia. At Sudan’s capital of Khartoum, it joins the White Nile, which begins around Lake Victoria. The two then flow together as one Nile north into Egypt and out to the Mediterranean Sea.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Egypt has long worried – with good reason – that upstream water development in Ethiopia would cut off some of its lifeline. Egyptian leaders from Anwar Sadat to Mohammed Morsi have warned of going to war over water if the nation’s supplies became threatened.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A stumbling block to equitable water-sharing in the basin is a 1959 treaty between Egypt and Sudan that allocated the entire flow of the Nile to just those two countries, even though 84 percent of the river’s flow originates in Ethiopia. Not surprisingly, Ethiopia never recognized the legitimacy of that agreement. But for decades it had neither the political stability nor the financial means to undertake the kind of large-scale water development that would challenge Egypt’s historic claims to the river.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That situation changed in 2011. As Egypt was preoccupied with the Arab Spring and the fall of the Mubarak government, Ethiopia announced that it would begin construction of a massive dam on the Blue Nile near the border with Sudan.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Now about 30 percent complete, the 145-meter-high Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is expected to cost some $4.8 billion and be completed in 2017. (If experience with other big dams holds true, it will cost more and take longer than these estimates.) The GERD would have the capacity to generate more than twice as much hydroelectric power as Egypt’s Aswan Dam, and more than Ethiopia itself can use for some time. The sale of power to neighboring Sudan is therefore critical to make the project financially viable. (Some <a href="http://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/ethiopia%E2%80%99s-biggest-dam-oversized-experts-say-8082" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #044e8e; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">experts say</a>that Ethiopia has grossly overestimated the amount of power the dam will actually produce with the river flows available.)</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The GERD would also be able to store more than a year’s worth of the Nile’s flow. Filling the reservoir, especially if done during dry years, would almost certainly reduce flows into Egypt.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But if equitable water-sharing accompanies rules for filling and operating the dam, the three countries could find themselves with more total water to share. That’s because evaporation rates are lower at the Grand Renaissance location than at Aswan. So storing more Nile water at the GERD, and less at Aswan, should add to the total water available for energy and irrigation among the three countries.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Moreover, since hydropower runs water through turbines but does not “consume” it, Ethiopia’s decision to pursue a more hydroelectric-centered approach to economic development, rather than one based heavily on highly water-consumptive irrigated agriculture, actually benefits Egypt. Less water consumption upstream means more is available to flow downstream into Egypt.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As Nile Basin expert Dale Whittington of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his colleagues <a href="http://www.iwaponline.com/wp/01604/wp016040595.htm" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #044e8e; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">write in the journal <em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Water Policy</em>,</a> the Grand Renaissance Dam “is Ethiopia’s first big step on a hydropower water development path for the Blue Nile, and Egypt should encourage Ethiopia to choose this option.”</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But the Nile flows through Sudan first, and with a reliable supply of irrigation water from the GERD, Sudan’s fertile lands could boost the nation’s food production and exports. Because Sudan has never used its full allotment of the Nile under the 1959 treaty, Egypt has actually been using part of Sudan’s share in addition to its own. An expansion of irrigated agriculture in Sudan could reduce flows into Egypt.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Greatly complicating the situation, when Sudan divided into two nations, there was <a href="http://e360.yale.edu/feature/on_the_river_nile_a_move_to_avert_a_conflict_over_water/2855/" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #044e8e; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">no clarification of how Sudan and South Sudan would share</a> the Nile’s water. Seeing an opportunity, Egypt has signed an agreement with South Sudan to cooperate in the development of the new nation’s water sources – presumably <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/03/egypt-south-sudan-nile-water-dispute-ethiopia.html" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #044e8e; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">in a way that would yield more water for Egypt</a>.</div><br /><br />
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<figure aria-labelledby="figcaption_attachment_157578" class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_157578" style="background-color: #eeeeee; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 20px; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px;"><img alt="Fishing in the Sudd wetlands of South Sudan. Credit: Wikimedia Commons." class="size-large wp-image-157578" src="http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2015/03/Fishing_in_Sudd_wetland_-_by_CPWF_Basin_Focal_Project-1024x683.jpg" height="683" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="1024" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="figcaption_attachment_157578" style="color: #777777; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; margin-bottom: 4px;">Fishing in the Sudd wetlands of South Sudan. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.</figcaption></figure><br /><br />
<div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Enter the Sudd Swamps</strong></div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A leading contender for the development of South Sudan’s water is the resurrection of an engineering scheme known as the Jonglei Canal. Designed decades ago, it would divert the White Nile away from the vast Sudd Swamps, a watery wilderness that supports a treasure trove of wildlife –including elephant, gazelle, hippopotamus, zebra and several varieties of antelope.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Sudd wetlands are also home to millions of migratory birds during the course of the year, with the glossy ibis population alone numbering some 1.7 million during the dry season.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A number of Nilotic tribes — including the Dinkas, Nuer and Shilluk – also thrive in the Sudd. With populations collectively numbering 200,000-400,000, they key their lives of pastoralism, fishing and agriculture to the seasonal cycle of flooding and the rich biodiversity of the region.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But the very vastness that makes the Sudd such an important and unique habitat also makes it a source of huge evaporation losses. The goal of the Jonglei Project — which was 70 percent complete when the Sudanese civil war broke out in 1983 – was to capture about 4 billion cubic meters of water a year (just under 5 percent of the Nile’s total annual flow) that would otherwise evaporate.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The ecological and cultural harms from the project were never fully examined, but could include a drying out of grazing lands, a drop in groundwater levels, the collapse of fisheries and the loss of critical habitat for wildlife.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In 2006, the Sudd <a href="http://www.panapress.com/Sudan-s-wetlands-listed-in-the-Ramsar-Convention-list--13-479550-68-lang1-index.html" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #044e8e; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">was designated</a> a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance, shining a spotlight on the Sudd’s importance to global conservation.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But in its quest for water security, Egypt now eyes the completion of the Jonglei irrigation scheme as a priority.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So while on balance the recently signed agreement between the three Nile nations shows promise for easing tensions and sharing the river’s benefits more equitably, the new risks to the Sudd are real and warrant consideration at the negotiating table.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Through investments in irrigation efficiency, smarter water management, regional trade and sound economic development, the three nations can benefit from greater cooperation over the Nile without sacrificing one of the region’s – and planet’s – great wetland wildernesses.</div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sandra Postel is director of the Global Water Policy Project, Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society, and author of several books and numerous articles on global water issues. She is co-creator of </em><a href="http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/change-the-course/" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #044e8e; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Change the Course</em></a><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, the national freshwater conservation and restoration campaign being piloted in the Colorado River Basin.</em></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-58590322139463904082015-03-06T01:36:00.001-08:002015-03-06T01:36:41.313-08:00Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia agree basis of Nile water deal - Yahoo News<br /><br />
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<div class="cta-text large " style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 35px; opacity: 0; position: relative; top: 177.5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View photo</div></div></figure><br /><br />
<div class="caption" style="color: grey; font-size: 12px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti (R) attends a press conference on the sidelines of meetings in Khartoum on March 3, 2015 between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia to try to resolve a dispute over a dam being built by Addis Ababa on the Nile (AFP Photo/Ashraf Shazly)</div></div></div></div><div class="body yom-art-content clearfix" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425634691469_1233" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.0000009536743px; line-height: 24.0000019073486px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px 10px; zoom: 1;"><div class="yom-ad yom-ad-LREC" id="yom-ad-LREC" style="background-color: #fafafc; border: none; clear: both; float: right; height: 250px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em 10px; max-height: 250px; text-align: center; visibility: inherit; width: 300px;"><div class="darla" id="sb_rel_yom-ad-LREC-iframe" style="display: inline-block; font-size: 0px; height: 250px; margin-bottom: 10px; position: relative; visibility: inherit; width: 300px; z-index: 9;"><iframe allowtransparency="true" async="" frameborder="no" hidefocus="true" id="yom-ad-LREC-iframe" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://l.yimg.com/rq/darla/2-8-7/html/r-sf.html" style="display: block; height: 250px; left: 0px; margin: 0px auto; max-height: none; max-width: none; min-height: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; visibility: inherit; width: 300px; z-index: 10;" tabindex="-1"></iframe></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Khartoum (AFP) - The foreign ministers of Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia said early on Friday they had reached the basis of an agreement on the sharing of Nile waters and Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam.</div><div class="body-slot-mod" style="clear: right; float: right; font-size: 11.5384635925293px; line-height: 17.3076953887939px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em 10px; max-width: 300px;"><div class="yom-remote"><div class="" id="mediacontentrelatedstory_container"></div></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"A full agreement has been reached between our three countries on the principles of the use of the eastern Nile Basin and the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam," Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti told reporters early on Friday morning.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The principles will be submitted to the heads of the three states for approval, Karti said at a press conference.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The talks, which started in Khartoum on Tuesday, focused on the sharing of the Nile river waters between the countries and resolving a dispute over a hydroelectric dam being built by Addis Ababa.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Egypt fears Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam project would diminish its share of the river waters.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In several rounds of talks, Ethiopia has said the project will have no effect on Sudan and Egypt downstream.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Karti hailed the basis as "a new path in the relations of our three countries" but gave no further details of the document.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said the agreed principles marked "the beginning of more cooperation between our three countries".</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">His Ethiopian counterpart Tedros Adhanom said the deal would open "a new chapter between the three countries".</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Egypt has expressed opposition to any project that might disrupt the flow of the Nile.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But the principles agreed upon "answer the concerns" of Egypt and Sudan, Egypt's water resources minister said.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425634691469_1232" style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The Blue Nile joins the White Nile at Khartoum to form the Nile, which flows through Sudan and Egypt before emptying into the Mediterranean.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425634691469_1236" style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Ethiopia began diverting the Blue Nile in May 2013 to build the 6,000 MW dam which will be Africa's largest when completed in 2017.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425634691469_1238" style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Ethiopian officials have said the project to construct the 1,780-metre-long and 145-metre high dam will cost $4.2 billion (3.2 billion euros).</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1425634691469_1240" style="margin-bottom: 1.1em;">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.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-70299223188021326642015-02-07T10:34:00.001-08:002015-02-07T10:34:51.833-08:00 Tanzania parliament disappointed over delay to ratify Nile River agreement -Coastweek - <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="height: 1px; 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<tr><td width="960"><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: grey;"><i>DAR ES SALAAM, (Xinhua) --</i></span> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Tanzanian parliament on Monday said the delay by the government to ratify the Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) was denying the east African country the right to make good use of the Nile River water.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">“Tanzania could have benefitted through the use of the Nile River water for power generation, irrigation farming and for domestic use,” Saidi Nkumba, the vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Water, Agriculture and Livestock, told the National Assembly in Dodoma when tabling the January 2014 to January 2015 implementation report of the parliamentary on water, agriculture and livestock.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">Nkumba said the agreement has set clear procedures of the Nile River water sharing among the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) member states of Tanzania, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Egypt and Sudan.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">He said only Ethiopia and Rwanda have ratified the CFA.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">In October 2014, Mark Mwandosya, the Minister of State in the President’s Office, said the cabinet has okayed the CFA to be ratified.</span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-71399154743231446112015-02-04T02:46:00.001-08:002015-02-04T02:46:35.882-08:00Egypt Water Report Q1 2015 - New Market Research Report | USPRwire<div class="style1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><em>New Materials research report from Business Monitor International is now available from Fast Market Research</em></div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><strong>[USPRwire, Mon Jan 26 2015] </strong>This quarter has seen the extensive upgrading of our water sector forecasts for Egypt, which now include mains and sewage network connectivity, desalinated water production, non mains consumption and treated wastewater forecasts. We have also revised our existing forecasts to take the new data into account. Overall, we believe that the political recovery, and influx of financial support and foreign investment from various sources including the UAE and the US, will improve the country's economy, and increased stability will encourage sustained water infrastructure investment. Given the ongoing risks of reduced water availability due to the Ethiopian dam plans, we view the additional investment as crucial to boosting Egypt's water resources over the medium term.<br /><br />
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The election of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been positive for Egypt's infrastructure development and the country's economy in general. Our Country Risk team expects a significant upswing in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Egypt over the coming quarters as political stability and pent-up demand entice investors back into the country. Furthermore, President Sisi has indicated that infrastructure development is a top priority for his government and given the imminent threat of a reduction in the Nile flows following the completion of the contentious Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, we expect water infrastructure to be a central concern.<br /><br />
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Full Report Details at<br /><br />
- <a href="http://www.fastmr.com/prod/944709_egypt_water_report_q1_2015.aspx?afid=302">http://www.fastmr.com/prod/944709_egypt_water_report_q1_2015.aspx?afid=302</a><br /><br />
<br /><br />
In our view, some form of compromise between Ethiopia and Egypt will be required, if a dangerous escalation of tensions is to be avoided. That compromise would likely entail Egypt turning its attention towards desalination projects - possibly with funding assistance from the World Bank - as a way to compensate for a reduced share of Nile waters. Such an increase in investment in desalination programmes will in any case likely be required, even if Egypt were to continue to tap its share of Nile waters. Such investment is relatively low, and the country...<br /><br />
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The Egypt Water Report has been researched at source and features latest-available data covering public and private sector investment in all major water projects including water extraction, water distribution and water treatment and sanitation projects and also includes competitive intelligence. The report features Business Monitor International (BMI)'s independent industry forecasts and analysis of latest industry news, trends and regulatory developments in Egypt.<br /><br />
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BMI's Egypt Water Report provides industry professionals and strategists, sector analysts, business investors, trade associations and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on the water industry in Egypt.<br /><br />
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You may also be interested in these related reports:<br /><br />
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- <a href="http://www.fastmr.com/prod/944791_saudi_arabia_water_report_q1_2015.aspx?afid=302">Saudi Arabia Water Report Q1 2015</a><br /><br />
- <a href="http://www.fastmr.com/prod/924267_qatar_water_report_q1_2015.aspx?afid=302">Qatar Water Report Q1 2015</a><br /><br />
- <a href="http://www.fastmr.com/prod/924240_oman_water_report_q1_2015.aspx?afid=302">Oman Water Report Q1 2015</a><br /><br />
- <a href="http://www.fastmr.com/prod/904192_united_arab_emirates_water_report_q1_2015.aspx?afid=302">United Arab Emirates Water Report Q1 2015</a><br /><br />
- <a href="http://www.fastmr.com/prod/904207_bahrain_water_report_q1_2015.aspx?afid=302">Bahrain Water Report Q1 2015</a> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-17984483675921375082014-12-16T04:34:00.001-08:002014-12-16T04:34:40.127-08:0020% of Egypt's Nile water share lost through ‘misuse’ - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online<br /><br />
<div id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_divLeftTitle" style="outline: none;"><div class="line_inner" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_bref_Sep" style="background-color: #730000; float: left; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 19px; outline: none; width: 550px;"></div><div class="bref_inner" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_bref" style="color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: none; width: 500px;">Professor Diaaeddin El-Qousi says Egyptians waste 20% of the water allocated to the country under the Nile Waters Agreement</div><div style="clear: both; outline: none;"></div><div class="line_inner" style="background-color: #730000; float: left; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 19px; outline: none; width: 550px;"></div><div class="bref_list" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_source" style="clear: both; color: #414141; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.25; outline: none;"><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/WriterArticles/Ahram-Online/344/0.aspx" style="color: #414141; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Ahram Online</a> , Monday 15 Dec 2014</div><div style="clear: both; outline: none;"><div class="line_inner" style="background-color: #730000; float: left; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 19px; outline: none; width: 550px;"></div></div></div><div class="icons_inner" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_Div1" style="float: right; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 14px; outline: none; position: relative; width: 144px;"><div class="line_icons" style="background-color: #730000; float: right; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px; outline: none; width: 144px;"></div><div class="icon1" style="float: left; margin-left: 5px; outline: none; width: 20px;"><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentPrint/1/0/117962/Egypt/0/-of-Egypts-Nile-water-share-lost-through-%E2%80%98misuse%E2%80%99.aspx" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_PrintRef2" style="color: #005689; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" title="Printable Version"><img alt="" src="http://english.ahram.org.eg/App_Themes/Black/images/icon_1.jpg" height="16" style="border: 0px none; 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font-size: 12px; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" through="" water=""><img alt="" src="http://english.ahram.org.eg/App_Themes/Black/images/icon_2.jpg" height="16" style="border: 0px none; outline: none;" width="16" /></a></div><div class="text_icons" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_divSendTxt" style="color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-left: 5px; outline: none; width: 100px;"><a class="iframe cboxElement" href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/UI/Front/SendToFriend.aspx?Title=20%%20of%20Egypt" id="117962'" lost="" misuse="" nile="" s="" share="" style="color: #005689; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" through="" water="">Send</a></div><div class="line_icons" style="background-color: #730000; float: right; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px; outline: none; width: 144px;"></div><div class="text_icons" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_divtwitter" style="color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; 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<div class="Caption" style="color: #414141; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 5px; outline: none; width: 690px;">Boats sail on the river Nile in Cairo (Photo: Reuters)</div></div><div class="smole_bref_inner" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_Img_bref" style="color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; outline: none; width: 550px;"></div><div class="text_inner" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_divContent" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51) !important; float: left !important; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 15px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; outline: none; width: 715px !important;"><div style="background-color: white; margin-top: 10px !important; outline: none;"></div><div class="related_articles" style="background-color: white; float: right; outline: none; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; width: 269px;"><div class="line_re" style="float: right; outline: none; width: 269px;"><img src="http://english.ahram.org.eg/App_Themes/Black/images/line_re.jpg" height="1" style="border: none; outline: none;" width="269" /></div><div class="hd_related_articles" style="float: left; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; outline: none; width: 250px;">Related</div><div class="line_re" style="float: right; outline: none; width: 269px;"><img src="http://english.ahram.org.eg/App_Themes/Black/images/line_re.jpg" height="1" style="border: none; outline: none;" width="269" /></div><div class="list_related_articles" style="color: #005689; float: left; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 15px; outline: none; width: 250px;"><br /><br />
<li style="line-height: 1.25; list-style-image: url(http://english.ahram.org.eg/App_Themes/Black/images/circle.png); outline: none;"><div style="outline: none;"><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/114527/Egypt/0/Egypts-FM-arrives-in-Ethiopia-for-diplomatic-sessi.aspx" style="color: #005689; font-size: 12px; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Egypt's FM arrives in Ethiopia for diplomatic session</a></div></li><br />
</div><div class="line_re" style="float: right; outline: none; width: 269px;"><img src="http://english.ahram.org.eg/App_Themes/Black/images/line_re.jpg" height="1" style="border: none; outline: none;" width="269" /></div><div class="list_related_articles" style="color: #005689; float: left; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 15px; outline: none; width: 250px;"><br /><br />
<li style="line-height: 1.25; list-style-image: url(http://english.ahram.org.eg/App_Themes/Black/images/circle.png); outline: none;"><div style="outline: none;"><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/113263/Egypt/0/Ethiopian-irrigation-minister-says-Addis-Ababa-is-.aspx" style="color: #005689; font-size: 12px; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Ethiopian irrigation minister says Addis Ababa is committed to sharing Nile water equitably</a></div></li><br />
</div><div class="line_re" style="float: right; outline: none; width: 269px;"><img src="http://english.ahram.org.eg/App_Themes/Black/images/line_re.jpg" height="1" style="border: none; outline: none;" width="269" /></div></div><span style="background-color: white;">Egyptians waste 20 percent of the country’s share of water from the Nile, a water resources expert has said in comments reported by Al-Ahram Arabic news website.</span><br /><br />
<div style="background-color: white; margin-top: 10px !important; outline: none;"></div><div style="background-color: white; margin-top: 10px !important; outline: none;">Diaaeddin El-Qousi, a professor at the National Institute for Water, said on Sunday that Egyptians “misuse” water by leaving taps running and while washing cars, among other reasons.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-top: 10px !important; outline: none;">Political science professor, Mostafa Elwi, called on Egyptian institutions to cooperate in order to find solutions to the Ethiopian dam issue.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-top: 10px !important; outline: none;">The comments were made at a seminar held by the Research and Strategic Studies Institute for Nile Basin Countries.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-top: 10px !important; outline: none;">Ethiopia's construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam has concerned the Egyptian government since May 2013.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-top: 10px !important; outline: none;">The Nile is Egypt's main source of water, with an allocated flow of 55.5 km<sup style="outline: none;">3</sup>/yr, according to the Nile Waters Agreement between Egypt and Sudan in 1959.</div><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-63602760652185095912014-11-28T02:25:00.001-08:002014-11-28T02:25:42.034-08:00Water control of the Nile risking new famine in Ethiopia - @AmjadBashirMEP<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jKZo-vMAKDc" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-9912100648845971052014-11-20T07:30:00.001-08:002014-11-20T07:30:55.467-08:00Integrating the Nile Basin with Modern Transport<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Geneva, Arial, SunSans-Regular, sans-serif;"><i>his article appears in the <a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2014/eirv41n46-20141121/index.html">November 21, 2014 issue</a> of <strong>Executive Intelligence Review.</strong></i></span><span style="background-color: white;"></span><br /><br />
<h3 style="background-color: white;"><br /></h3><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">by Hussein Askary and Dean Andromidas, Part IV</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"><em>[<a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2014/2014_40-49/2014-46/pdf/24-37_4146.pdf">PDF version of this article</a>]</em></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"><em>This is the final part of a series of four articles on the Nile Basin and East Africa, whose purpose is to show the great potential for peace and prosperity in Africa, and also that the shovels are now in the ground, and beginning construction of great projects, for the first time in decades. Parts I-III were published in the <a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4135egypt_canal.html">Sept. 5</a>, <a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4136egypt_spur_afn_dvlpmnt.html">Sept. 12</a>, and<a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4140egypt_role_afr.html">Oct. 10</a> issues of EIR.</em></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"><br />Beyond the need for an international emergency response to the horrendous Ebola epidemic in West Africa, what is needed to prevent the reemergence of such epidemics, famine, wars, and mass-migrations, is a permanent and comprehensive development approach. In East Africa and the Nile Basin, we are seeing a new process come into being, after the long, dark night, with developments in Egypt, Ethiopia, and now, further south to the other nations of the Nile Basin (see Parts I-III).</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">But this process has to be sustained and backed by international action, before it is killed in the cradle, as the great dreams of African independence and development were killed and drenched in the blood of the African peoples and their best leaders in the 1960s. The civil wars, famines, epidemics, and genocide that followed were the result of the strategic denial of technologies and medicines to Africa by the trans-Atlantic system.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Simultaneously, Africa was bleeding human resources to Europe, and having raw materials exchanged for weapons, and financial resources smuggled by dictators and warlords to British and Swiss banks and financial institutions.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">With the emergence of the “new, just world economic system” that Lyndon LaRouche and his international movement have been fighting for, now, through the actions of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, Indian, China, and South Africa), Africa no longer need be shackled to its former colonial masters and their contemporary institutions of slavery, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and such green genocidal organizations as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).</span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">One Unit of Action</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Regional integration has been part of Africa’s strategy for economic transformation since the 1960s, and concrete agreements have been adopted, including the Lagos Plan of Action (1980) and the Abuja Treaty (1991). But that transformation has never materialized. That is about to change. The African Union (AU) is the natural entity for physical and political integration. However, the regional structures have to be integrated into the AU vision, based on physical-economic considerations, rather than ideological, religious, ethnic, political, and even monetary ones.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">An economic development policy has to enhance the region’s capacity to create what LaRouche has termed a rising “physical-economic unit of action.” In his “<a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/lar/2008/3502one_is_origin.html">The One Is the Origin of Its Parts</a>” (<em>EIR</em>, Jan. 11, 2008), LaRouche stated, “The unit of action is a relative rise, or lowering, of the potential relative population-density of the respective, or combined systems as interacting wholes. The unit of action is essentially ‘Vernadskyian,’ which is to say, both a cultural and physical increase, or decrease of the potential relative population-density, as per capita and per square kilometer of the relevant national, continental, or global systems as wholes. The relevant mode of action is the quality of the individual human mind which distinguishes the human mind from the beasts, and places mankind categorically as acting, primarily, in terms of the Noösphere, rather than merely the Biosphere.”</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Infrastructure in general, and especially transport infrastructure, plays a decisive role. This report will identify the triad of transport infrastructure projects needed, including road, rail, and maritime areas in the greater Nile Basin.</span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Creating a Powerful North-South Axis</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The Nile Basin and the related East African region are part of a potentially powerful north-south axis of development that can serve to link the two most developed countries that lie on opposite ends of the continent: Egypt and South Africa.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">This axis can be divided into three sections. The northern region includes Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. While guarding the eastern boundary of the Nile Basin, Ethiopia overlooks the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean, but direct access to those seas is blocked by Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. Ethiopia hosts the source of the Blue Nile at Lake Tana.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The second part of this axis is East Africa, with Kenya and Tanzania on the Indian Ocean, and Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda on the interior. This region forms the so-called Eastern Rift, which hosts the African Great lakes, the largest of which is the misnamed Lake Victoria, the source of the White Nile.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The third section is the western flank of southern Africa, including Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa itself.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The Nile Basin/East Africa region, with an abundance of water, fertile land, minerals, hydrocarbons, untapped potential for hydropower, and large, young populations, is positioned to become a major economic force in the 21st Century. At the moment, however, its resources need to be reorganized, standardized, and unified, to get the maximum benefit from each of the individual resources.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">For example, using a “multi-modular transport system” would increase and optimize the productivity of all these societies, as wasted time, energy, and human resources will be eliminated. A multi-modular transport system is a combination of two or more transport means—land, rail, sea, and air—creating an integrated transport chain in which the advantages of each of these are utilized.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Transshipment terminals are characteristic of this system, giving it speed and efficiency, as the cargo, for example, a container (not bulk cargo, such as oil, wood, and grains), is loaded from a ship, onto a train or a truck, in the least time, and with the least effort. Containers can be tracked from a distance by the receiver and sender through digitalized electronic systems. This requires standardized sizes for the containers, lifts, and rail gauges, to allow trains to pass through different terminals and countries, etc. Containers carrying foodstuffs can be refrigerated, along with storage and handling terminals, a crucial factor in the transport of agricultural products in this part of the world, where many products are spoiled on the way to the markets.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">None of this is available now in the Nile Basin, except to a limited extent in Egypt, where international transshipment is handled. Egypt has a special position, as it will form a land-bridge with Eurasia, as part of the Maritime Silk Road through the Suez Canal, and a maritime connection with Europe on the Mediterranean. Egypt is also connected by land to Asia through the Sinai Peninsula.</span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Colonial Legacy</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The existing transport systems in the region were designed in the colonial era to link countries’ mineral and agricultural wealth with overseas markets, rather than interlinking these countries. Railways that were used by the British and other colonialists to loot the region have different gauges, not only between the countries, but even within the same nation in some cases. But even these limited railways have been largely abandoned for lack of maintenance and investment.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">In Kenya, only half of the original 2,730 km of railways are operational. Railways are the most cost-effective mode of transport for moving bulk cargo for long distances over land, and are well suited to container traffic between ports and cities. The ten countries of the Nile Region combined have a total railway network of 23,059 km, compared with India at 115,000 km and China at 103,000 km of railway track, as of 2013. Burundi and Rwanda have no railroads at all.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Most railway systems in the region are inefficient, have long transit times, and operate far below their capacity. The narrow 1.067-m gauge is the most widely used, except in Egypt, where the standard 1.435-m gauge has been used. The railways are generally single track with limited axle load and low speed. None of the national rail systems are designed to cross borders.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">As a consequence of all of these obstacles, shortcomings, and the colonial legacy, political integration among the nations of Africa has been prevented.</span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Landlocked</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The fact that most nations in the Nile Basin are landlocked has hampered their economic development and integration with other regions. On top of genocidal economic and military policies, the economies of especially the Upper Nile region have been hamstrung by the fact that most of the transport within and among these nations is carried by truck, on poorly built and maintained roads. This has made transport among them the most costly in the world.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The challenges are more severe for the six Nile Basin nations that are landlocked riparian countries—Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, DR Congo, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. For example, the cost of the transportation of a container of fertilizer from Singapore to Alexandria harbor (Egypt) is US$4,000, Mombasa harbor (Kenya) US$5,000, Kampala (Uganda) US$8,400, Kigali (Rwanda) US$10,400, and Bujumbura (Burundi) US$10,600.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="fnB1"></a><a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4146nile_basin_transport.html#fn1">[1]</a></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Even trade and transfer of goods and machinery among the neighboring nations suffer enormously due to the absence of both standardized and non-standardized transport networks. The absence of cheaper and more effective rail and river transport links between North and South, and East and West, has undermined the economic integration of the Nile Basin.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">For example, while more than two-thirds of Egypt’s Nile Basin exports go to Sudan and South Sudan, less than 1% goes to the eight upstream nations! As for Sudan’s exports, only 2.2% go to these countries. Likewise, imports from the Nile Basin nations to Egypt comprise only 0.6% of its total imports, Sudan 12%, and Ethiopia 3%.</span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">China’s Plan for Economic Corridors</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">China has plans to deal with this problem.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">In May 2014, while on a tour to several African nations, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang projected an optimistic vision of Chinese-aided industrial and infrastructural growth for the African continent. The tour started in Ethiopia, ended in Kenya, and included Nigeria, China’s third-biggest trading partner in Africa, and Angola, its biggest. Contrary to frustrated and nervous reporting in Western media, Li was not on a shopping spree for raw materials. Rather, he advocated an increase in Chinese industrial investment in Africa, and Chinese-aided infrastructure construction, policies which will raise standards of living, and propel Africa onto a new economic platform.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Speaking at the Africa Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on May 5, Li emphasized that one of China’s goals is to fulfill the dream of connecting all African capitals by high-speed rail, so as to boost pan-African communication and development. Li emphasized that China has developed world-class technologies in this area.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">This is the first time that a leading nation has advocated a plan to begin the process of the rapid industrial and infrastructural development of Africa, since LaRouche initiated a study in 1979 calling for the rapid development of infrastructure, including a continent-wide rail network, ambitious water projects, nuclear power, and industrialization.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">In fact, China has already taken the lead in building transport infrastructure through the Nile Basin.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The most significant development during Li’s tour was the agreement reached in Kenya on May 11, 2014 between the Chinese delegation and the leaders of the East African Community (EAC), to build a $3.8 billion rail link between Kenya’s Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, and Nairobi, the first stage of a line that will eventually link Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan. Under the terms of the agreement, the Exim Bank of China will provide 90% of the cost to replace the crumbling British colonial-era line with a 609.3-km standard-gauge railway. Kenya is to provide the remaining 10%. Construction began in late October, and is expected to take three-and-a-half years to complete, with China Communications Construction Co. as the lead contractor.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="fnB2"></a><a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4146nile_basin_transport.html#fn2">[2]</a></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The new Mombasa-Nairobi (Kenya) lines will cut passenger travel time from the current 12 hours to around 4. Freight-train times would be cut from the current 36 hours, to just 8, which means, also, the slashing of cargo transport costs by 60%.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Once the Mombasa-Nairobi line is completed, construction would begin on linking East Africa’s largest economy with Kampala, Kigali, Bujumbura, and Juba.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The signing ceremony was attended by Li and Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, and high-level representatives of Burundi and Tanzania. “This project demonstrates that there is equal cooperation and mutual benefit between China and the East African countries, and the railway is a very important part of transport infrastructure development,” Premier Li said. Kenyatta hailed the booming relationship with China, calling it one “based on mutual trust,” and saying Kenya “has found an honorable partner in China.” Museveni took a shot at Western powers saying, “We are happy to see that China is concentrating on the real issues of development. They don’t give lectures on how to run local governments. ”</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">This agreement is just one of a series that China has signed to realize development corridors that can propel the economies of East Africa into the 21st Century: the Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor; the Northern Corridor (referenced above); and the Central Corridor. They are part of the East African Railways Master Plan, a proposal for rejuvenating existing railways serving Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, and extending them initially to Rwanda and Burundi, and eventually, to South Sudan, Ethiopia, and beyond, to connect to North and West Africa through DR Congo, Sudan, and Egypt.</span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">A 2018 Deadline</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The final report of the Master Plan, which was commissioned by the EAC, was issued in 2009 by the Ottawa-based CPCS Transcom. However, it has lain dormant, like many other projects in Africa, that have been denied support and financing from the West. The cost of the projects, up to US$40 billion or more, will be shouldered by China and other BRICS nations such as India, which has also shown interest in backing development in East Africa. The deadline set for completing all these projects is 2018! What this means is that East Africa will become one of the largest workshops in the world in the coming years, with new industries, economic zones, and trade centers shooting off the main projects.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">China will be building standard gauge railways simultaneously in several countries. In 2013, the state-owned China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) signed a US$8 billion contract with the Ugandan government for upgrading and expanding its railway network to standard gauge railway (SGR—distance between the inside edges of the rails, 1,435 mm), from Malaba on the border with Kenya, to Kampala (east-west line), and from Malaba to Gulu, with expansion to Nimule on the border with Sudan (southeast-north). From there, the network is to expand to Juba in South Sudan.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">This project is part of the Northern Corridor of the EAC. As part of the contract, the CHEC will work closely with the Ugandan Army’s Engineering Brigade, and will also construct a polytechnic school in Uganda for continuous training of army officers in technical and engineering skills.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The CHEC has announced that the government of South Sudan has also selected the company to build new and upgrade existing railway lines.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Ethiopia too has been engaging Chinese companies to build its own standard-gauge railway networks. Within 3-5 years, Ethiopia is planning to have one of the most advanced rail networks in Africa. In 2011, the state-owned Ethiopian Railways Company (ERC) signed two agreements with Chinese companies to build a 4,744-km rail network, which will link 50 urban centers, in all the states of Ethiopia, and to towns bordering Sudan, Kenya, and Djibouti. This plan is part of the Ethiopian government’s five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP).</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">In December 2011, ERC sealed a contract with China Civil Engineering Construction (CCECC) to build the 339-km Mieso-Dire Dawa-Dewele railway line, which is part of the Addis Ababa-Dire Dawa-Djibouti railway project. The actual track-laying started in May 2014, and the project is expected to be completed in 2015. The electrified railway will be 740 km long, and will provide both passenger and cargo transport from Ethiopia’s capital to the Tadjoura Port in neighboring Djibouti.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">It is estimated that the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway will reduce travel time by half, to less than 10 hours. with a designated speed of 120 km/hour.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Djibouti has become Ethiopia’s main outlet to international markets since it lost access to the Eritrean Port of Assab on the Red Sea, following the Eritrean-Ethiopian War that started in 1998. However, the building of the railway is not simply a trade route, but part of the development plan of the Ethiopian hinterland.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">India has contributed to the Ethiopia-Djibouti project by providing a US$300 million credit line, in June 2013, through its Export-Import Bank.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">In June 2012, Ethiopian Railways and China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) had also signed a $1.5 billion agreement to build a 268.2-km railway line in the northern part of Ethiopia. The line will run from Mekelle-Woldya to Hara Gebeya. This project links the north of the country to the Addis Ababa-Djibouti line.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="fnB3"></a><a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4146nile_basin_transport.html#fn3">[3]</a></span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Road System</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Road transport now accounts for 80% of the goods and 90% of the passenger traffic in the Nile Basin. The commodities transported by road are mainly agricultural products and locally manufactured goods. Haulage is mostly by trailer trucks and road tankers (fuel trucks).</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The Nile region has about 650,000 km of roads, resulting in a road density of 7 km for every 100 km<sup>2</sup>. This is low when compared with other developing regions, such as Ibero-America (12 km per 100 km<sup>2</sup>), and Asia (18 km per 100 km<sup>2</sup>). What’s more dramatic is the ratio of paved to unpaved roads: South Sudan has only 7,000 km of roads, but only 1% is paved; Rwanda 12,000 km with only 8% paved; Uganda, 81,000 km with 4% paved; Kenya, 160,000 km and 7% paved. Egypt has the highest ratio of paved roads with 65,000 km and 73% paved. For the region, only 86,600 km (14%) are paved.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The growing volume of cargo on generally inadequate road networks has resulted in increased traffic congestion and rapid deterioration of the already poor roads. The level of maintenance of existing roads is poor, resulting in many sections that are unusable during the wet season. South Sudan, which experiences extensive seasonal flooding each year, has the highest proportion of seasonally inaccessible roads. Road accidents in the region are generally high. Other problems affecting the road subsector, are trucks exceeding axle-load limits, resulting in premature road failure, and delays on transit corridors, mainly at seaports, weigh-bridges, border-crossing points, and inland terminal points, all of which increase transport costs.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The cost of road transport of bulk cargo is 3-4 times, and even higher, for longer than 1,000-km distance, compared to inland water or rail transport for medium and longer distances. Moreover, it has only limited potential to achieve economies of scale, and thus hinders industrialization and commercialization of agriculture.</span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Regional and Continental Corridors</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">With the new positive developments reported above, this situation can be altered for all time. There are a number of significant plans for development corridors being worked on, proposed, or studied in the Nile Basin.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The most important vision of the AU has been to integrate the continent in north-south and east-west directions, though the Trans-African Highway system (TAH). The concept of the TAH, conceived in the 1970s, is a system of nine main transport corridors, whose objectives are:</span></div><ol style="background-color: white;"><li type="a"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">providing the best possible direct routes between the capitals of the continent;</span></li>
<li type="a"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">contributing to the political, economic, and social integration and cohesion of Africa; and (</span></li>
<li type="a"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">ensuring availability of road transport facilities among important areas of production and consumption in the continent.</span></li>
</ol><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The Nile region is traversed by four of the nine TAH routes: the Cairo-Cape Town, Lagos-Mombasa, Dakar-N’Djamena-Djibouti, and Cairo-Dakar routes. These routes are important for linking the Nile riparian states. However, roads are not efficient for medium- and long-distance transport, and have to be replaced or accompanied by railways.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The implemented, planned, and designed corridors of this region are:</span></div><h3 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">1. North-South: Egypt’s<br /> North-South Development Corridor</span></h3><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The Development Corridor proposed by Dr. Farouk El-Baz, an Egyptian-American space scientist who is now a scientific and economic advisor to Egypt President Abdulfattah Al-Sisi, can be considered the launching pad for the Cairo-Cape Town Corridor. It is modestly described as a “national” development project aimed at releasing the pressure from the densely populated Nile Valley, by building a multi-faceted transport network in the western desert of Egypt, parallel to the Nile Valley, but it also has regional and continental implications. It is called the New Valley, and includes:</span></div><ol style="background-color: white;"><li type="a"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">a superhighway to be built using the highest international standards, 1,200 km in length, from west of Alexandria, to the southern border of Egypt;</span></li>
<li type="a"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">12 east-west branches, with a total length of approximately 800 km, to connect the highway to high-density population centers along the way;</span></li>
<li type="a"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">a railroad for fast transport parallel to the superhighway,</span></li>
<li type="a"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">a water pipeline from the Toshka Canal to supply freshwater; and</span></li>
<li type="a"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">An electricity line to supply energy during the early phases of development.</span></li>
</ol><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">This Egyptian corridor can easily be extended southward to Sudan, and all the way to the Equatorial Lakes. The maritime potential of the river can be maximized as part of this corridor (see section on river transport below). As in other African countries, roads are dominant in the Egyptian-Sudanese goods transport. However, political differences between the governments of these two countries had, until very recently, hampered even this expensive means of transport. It was not until August 2014, that the two countries completed the border crossing terminal at Qastal, linking Aswan in Egypt with Wadi Halfa in Sudan with a modern highway.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">This road intersects the Toshka irrigation canal project which is part of El-Baz’s Development Corridor, which continues to Wadi Halfa. It runs parallel to the ferry transport line between Aswan and Wadi Halfa on the surface of the 550 km-long Lake Nasser behind the Aswan Dam (see river transport below). According to Egyptian estimates, this new road can increase the trade between the two countries from US$850 million to $2 billion, or even $3 billion. The cost of the transport of one ton of goods by air is about US$1,200, while by road is US$200. However, development of the railway connections between the two countries would both lower the cost, and increase the speed of the development of these remote and under-populated regions of the two countries.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The Egyptian rail network stops in Aswan, and the Sudanese, in Wadi Halfa. The Wadi Halfa railway, which was built to facilitate the British invasion of Sudan in 1897, is a narrow-gauge railway that needs dramatic improvements, and even rebuilding to standard gauge, to match the Egyptian railway network. It extends 600 km to Atbara where it branches to the Red Sea’s Port Sudan, about 350 km to the east, and to Khartoum in the south, another 330 km. It creates the backbone of the rail transport of the country. Its location along a series of dams and agricultural projects that are either completed, like Merowe; under construction, such as Atbara Dam; or planned, like the Kajbar Dam further north near the border with Egypt—will make an indispensable part of a development corridor that would upgrade the economy of the nation and the region tremendously.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Further south from Khartoum, the state of railways is similar to that of the Wadi Halfa. The main lines from Khartoum to Babanusa and Niyala, where the Sudanese railway networks ends in the south and southwest, is badly maintained and needs complete overhaul. The only rail connection to South Sudan is from Babanusa to Wau. The transport connections to South Sudan and the rest of the Nile Basin nations will depend largely on the political relationships between the two sides, the internal situation among the different belligerent factions inside South Sudan, and dramatically so, on the new economic and political conditions that will be created through the Chinese intervention from the East Africa through the proposed Lamu Corridor.</span></div><h3 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">2. Port Sudan-Dakar Corridor</span></h3><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Before the separation of South Sudan from the Republic of Sudan in 2011, Sudan took a leading role in reviving the project of connecting and integrating West and East Africa by a modern railway network. The project was presented by Sudan to the 2005 Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit, and was adopted unanimously by the OIC summit held in Dakar, Senegal, in May 2008. A conference of the transport ministers of member-states of the OIC was held in Khartoum, in December 2009, to discuss construction of what is officially now known as the Dakar-Port Sudan Railway Line. However, lack of financing and the unstable political situation in Sudan has hampered the implementation of the project.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The rail line between Dakar and Port Sudan is a strategic, transcontinental transport and infrastructure network, linking Sudan, Chad, Niger, Mali, and Senegal, as the countries of the main east-west line. The main line will be connected north-south through additional branches to Djibouti, Libya, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Guinea. When the Cairo-Khartoum and Rabat-Dakar lines are completed, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans will be connected by land, forming an integrated economic-strategic unit for development of the continent.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The railway network will extend for about 14,000 km, and intersect major water and agriculture projects that have been advocated by LaRouche and <em>EIR</em> over three decades, such as the [[Transaqua project]] [[http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2011/ eirv38n28-20110722/31-36_3828.pdf]] to transfer water from the Congo River to Lake Chad through a network of modern canal systems. The project also intersects a move to stabilize the Darfur region in western Sudan, which has suffered enormously due to its civil war, or a proxy war backed by Chad against Khartoum through Sudanese rebels supported by Western powers. Now, with normalization of relations between Chad and Sudan, and the continued peace process with the Sudanese rebels in Darfur, this region can reap the benefits of the “Development Corridor” concept.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">However, Sudan’s own railways have to be rebuilt according to the new standardized gauge. The priority is to rehabilitate the Port Sudan-Khartoum line, and extend it further south to Babanusa, and westward to Niyala, the capital of South Darfur, the closest to the Chadian border. Work is under way in different part of Sudan, with Chinese participation, to modernize the existing 5,000-km railway network, one of the largest in Africa, but there are no plans to rebuild the network of narrow gauge tracks to standard gauge. Given the enormous international political and economic pressure that has been exerted on Sudan on the past three decades, Sudan itself will not be able to carry out this gargantuan mission. International assistance is a must.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">In March 2011, Chad signed a US$7 billion contract with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, which is scheduled to begin work on a 1,340-km railway line connecting it to Cameroon and Sudan, with work to start in 2012. Chad started producing raw oil in 2003 with help of U.S. ExxonMobil and Chevron, in addition to Malaysian Petronas. A 1,070-km pipeline was built to export oil to international markets through Cameroon. Crude oil production in Chad was an estimated 115,000 barrels per day in 2011 and 105,000 bbl/d in 2012, most of which is exported to earn the impoverished country badly needed income.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the Chadian government jointly constructed the 20,000 bbl/d N’Djamena refinery, and it began supplying the local market with petroleum products in 2011. The extra income helped Chad launch a program of public works construction in 2009. However, the national railway program, with the connection to Cameroon and Sudan is to be financed by China. The US$5.6 billion four-year plan covers a 1,364-km standard-gauge network, to be built to Chinese standards, and suitable for 120 km/h diesel operation using rolling stock to be supplied from China. Work is expected to take four years.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Two lines are proposed. The East line will run 836 km from N’Djamena to Adré on the border with Sudan. Last year, Sudan and China signed an agreement for a line running around 300 km through the Marra Plateau region of western Darfur, to link the Sudanese railhead at Nyala with Chad. The South line will run 528 km from the capital N’Djamena to Moundou on the border with Cameroon. An additional 250 km will have to be built to link to the Cameroon national railway network at Ngaoundéré. Cameroon has reportedly put forward a national railway master plan to build a modern standard-gauge railway network. The program was developed in partnership with the South Korea firms Korpec and Chunsuk Engineering, and is to be followed by feasibility studies. A key component of the program is to link to its neighbors Nigeria, Chad, and Congo.</span></div><h3 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">3. The Lamu Corridor</span></h3><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The Lamu Corridor, officially known as Lamu-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET), is a regional transport infrastructure project that will integrate landlocked South Sudan and Ethiopia into the East Africa transport network. The project includes several components such as:</span></div><ul style="background-color: white;"><li type="disc"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"> a three-berth-deep seaport at Manda Bay, Lamu, Kenya;</span></li>
<li type="disc"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"> standard-gauge railway from Lamu to Juba (South Sudan) via Isiolo; with a branch from Isiolo to Addis Ababa via Moyale;</span></li>
<li type="disc"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"> a two-lane motorway (Lamu-Isiolo-Juba; and Isiolo-Moyale-Addis Ababa);</span></li>
<li type="disc"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"> oil pipelines (South Sudan-Lamu; and Ethiopia-Lamu), giving South Sudan an alternative to exporting its crude oil through northern Sudan to the Red Sea port of Port Sudan;</span></li>
<li type="disc"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"> an oil refinery at Lamu;</span></li>
<li type="disc"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"> fiber optic cable;</span></li>
<li type="disc"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"> three airports (at Lamu, Isiolo, and Turkana);</span></li>
<li type="disc"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"> three resort cities (Lamu, Isiolo, and Turkana).</span></li>
</ul><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The Lamu Corridor, one of the largest infrastructure projects in Africa, is estimated to cost US$24.5 billion, and will be funded primarily by the governments of Kenya, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. Part of the financing is being sought through international loans. However, given the negative view of such developments in the West, the most likely source of financing would be China and the BRICS nations. The project is estimated to be completed in 2018.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The new Lamu Port, with capacity to dock large “cape size” vessels, will help to ease congestion at Mombasa and improve the flow of imports and exports.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">On Aug. 2, Kenya Ports Authority and China’s CCCC signed the Lamu Port construction contract. The day before, the leaders of Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and Ethiopia met in Nairobi to discuss joint financing of the Lamu Corridor. Construction work started in September.</span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The North-South Economic Axis</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Maritime and inland waterway transportation forms the third leg of the intermodal system of transport, interfacing road and rail.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Taking developed regions of the world, such as Europe as an example, coastal and inland shipping plays a crucial role in the efficiency of an economic system. The most developed countries in Europe, benefit from their dense network of canals and rivers which connect them to one another, as well as the major ports of the continent such as Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Despite the fact that it is a slower form of transport than road or rail, coastal, river, and canal shipping are extremely efficient, and cost one-tenth that of road transport, and about half that of rail. The type of ship or barge suitable for the Nile, could carry 40 truckloads or more.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Because of the lack of development along the Nile Basin, river transport is grossly under-utilized and under-developed, contributing to the high cost of transportation. The development of river and canal infrastructure for shipping complements that used for regulating and distributing the Basin’s water for agriculture, as well as urban and industrial purposes. An obvious example is the 60-km-long main irrigation canal of the Toshka Project whose cross-section is twice that of the Rhine Main-Danube canal. By the same token, the barrages along the river that regulate the flow of the water to enhance irrigation, also regulate the depth of the river, all of which is necessary for shipping. Furthermore, hydroelectric facilities form an integral part of these structures.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The Maritime component begins at the Mediterranean coast and entrance to the Suez Canal, traveling along the 2,200-km of the Red Sea, and the over 8,000 km of coastline from the Gulf of Aden south along the Indian Ocean coast of Africa. The numerous ports along this coast not only form routes to Asia and other continents, but also a north-south axis that further serves to integrate the economies of the region.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">This coast is endowed with relatively good ports, such as Port Suez at the lower entrance of the Suez Canal and Sokhna Port on the Red Sea in Egypt, and Sudan’s Port Sudan, Djibouti, at the mouth of the Red Sea. which is the principal port for land-locked Ethiopia. Kenya’s Mombasa and Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam are modern ports, but Eritrea and Somalia have poor ports. while the Chinese are building a new port at Lamu, Kenya, near the Somalia border.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">While many of these ports have relatively modern facilities, they are becoming over-utilized, and must be expanded and upgraded. But the bigger problem is the poor infrastructure, especially rail going into the hinterland, which causes the cargo to accumulate in the harbor. preventing the speedy loading and unloading of ships.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Only the Egyptian Mediterranean ports of Alexandria and Damietta on the Nile Delta are linked to navigable river systems, in this case the Nile.</span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The Longest River in the World</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">As for the Nile itself, with a length of over 6,800 km, the Nile is the longest river in the world, almost three times longer than the Rhine-Main-Danube-Black Sea river and canal system that stretches from Rotterdam to the Black Sea. The Nile River’s basin interfaces in the South with the region of the African Great Lakes in East Africa.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The river itself has two sources: the Blue Nile and the White Nile which join together at Khartoum in Sudan (Figure 2). The Blue Nile has as its source Lake Tana, located at an elevation of 1,829 m in the high mountains of northeastern Ethiopia, from which the river flows through steep mountain valleys, entering eastern Sudan, and flowing to the northwest where it joins the White Nile at Khartoum, where the Nile continues north to the Mediterranean. Because of the high mountains and cataracts (shallow areas or white water rapids), the Blue Nile is not navigable.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The White Nile has as its source Lake Victoria in Uganda. With an area of 68,800 km<sup>2</sup>, Africa’s largest lake, and the world’s second-largest freshwater lake. Victoria is part of the system of the African Great Lakes which form the East African Rift.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">To the west and south of Victoria lie a series of lakes, namely, from north to south, Lakes Kyoga, Albert, Edward, Kivu, and Tanganyikia and further south, Lake Malawi. These lakes bring the Nile Basin in communication with Uganda, DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, to the east, and Kenya and Tanzania and even Malawi and Zambia.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Lake Tanganyika continues a southerly course for over 600 km where it touches the northeast corner of Zambia. Three hundred kilometers to the east of that point, traveling along the Tanzania-Zambia border, one reaches Malawi and the northern tip of Lake Malawi, which stretches south for another 600 kilometers, coming into direct contact with Mozambique, which also lies on the Indian Ocean, to form a land-bridge to Southern Africa.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Unlike the American Great Lakes, these lakes are not linked with canals. Nonetheless, they lie in some of the most fertile regions of Africa, and therefore form centers of economic development in themselves. While already serving as regional waterways, they need to be seriously upgraded with navigation aids, modern ports, and integrated into the network of roads and railways so as be part of the North-South and East-West transport networks.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Coming back to the White Nile’s source near Jinga on the northern shore of Lake Victoria in Uganda, it flows north, where it is joined by rivers to the east and west of the basin. It then passes the South Sudan border at Nimule, continuing to flow north, where it joins with the Blue Nile at Khartoum. From here the Nile River flows through Lake Nasser, crossing into Egypt after the break caused by the Aswan High Dam, to Cairo, the broad delta region, and then to the Mediterranean. Unfortunately it is not navigable for its full length. To make it fully navigable would be more than an engineering challenge because of the nature of the topography</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Navigation only begins on the White Nile at the South Sudanese Capital of Juba to the north Sudanese capital of Khartoum, after which, a series of cataracts and the Merowe Dam prevent navigation until the southern reaches of Lake Nasser. Called the “southern reach” of the Nile, it is over 1,700 km long. For South Sudan, which is devoid of railways and good roads, the river is its most reliable transport artery. Its improvement would greatly aid in building the roads and railway that are needed along its path.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The completion of the 370-km-long Jonglei Canal, avoiding the Sudd marshes between Bor and Malakai, would dramatically improve navigation. As mentioned in Part III, the canal would drain the Sudd, and turn the region into a bread basket, where the river-canal system could serve as the key transportation artery.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Below Khartoum, to the southern tip of Lake Nasser, a series of cataracts and dams block possibilities for navigation. Lake Nasser is navigable for no less that 550 km, until the Aswan High Dam, after which navigation once again becomes possible for another 1,200 km to the Mediterranean.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">In Egypt, the Nile divides into three principal navigable waterways: The first is the Aswan-Cairo Waterway, running for 960 km, beginning at the foot of the Aswan High Dam. From there, the Nile enters into the river’s great delta where it divides, with one branch bearing eastward, the Cairo-Damieta Waterway, from which ships can easily reach Port Said, directly on the Suez Canal.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The second branch is the Cairo-Alexandria Waterway which includes the 118-km-long Nubaria Canal. Alexandria is Egypt’s main port of entry, with two-thirds of its exports and imports passing through its harbor. Improving this waterway is high on the list of projects, not only for transportation, but for improving the irrigation of that part of the delta.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">There is also the Ismailia Canal which runs from North Cairo to Ismailia directly on the Suez Canal. This is primarily a conveyor of water for irrigation, as well as bringing freshwater to the Canal Zone. While its cross-section is too small for the classes of ship that ply the Nile, studies are being done to considerably enlarge the canal. If developed for shipping, it could transform Ismailia into a major transshipment port, for cargoes destined for Cairo and points south along the Nile itself.</span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The New Suez Canal</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">In Egypt, more than 90% of the haulage of freight within the country is over the road network. The Egyptians know this has to change, and that the only way is to expand the rail network and develop the river systems. More to the point is the fact that the Egyptian government is determined to fully develop the Nile as major north-south axis, not only within Egypt, but to points further south so that it can be integrated into the great industrial and logistical complex they will be developing as part of their New Suez Canal project.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Regional coastal shipping is being developed in the Red Sea, and on the Indian Ocean coast of Africa. New shipping services will be developed to integrate the region. For instance, the Egyptian government has restored ferry services from Port Suez to Saudi Arabia just across the Red Sea.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">On the Nile itself, the government has an integrated national plan to reconstruct and develop the entire length of the Nile within Egypt, to enhance irrigation, freshwater distribution, and transportation. New river ports are being developed along its full length.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Qalaa Holdings, an investment fund that is taking the lead in this, is concentrating on investment in infrastructure, and is eager to develop the entire basin down to Uganda, where it has acquired the concession to manage the Rift Valley Railway in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Built by the British, this railway fell into disrepair, but the company has now greatly improved it, and is even interested in expanding it to Juba where it can be linked with the river transport on the White Nile. In Egypt, Qalaa is building up a fleet of 100 motorized barges with the view of expanding greatly river and canal transportation.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">In addition to developing the great complex at the Suez Canal Zone, which we described in detail in the Part I of this series, the Egyptian government has just announced that it plans to create a global grain and food logistics center at Damieta to serve the entire region, a project which Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb recently declared “a large national project that is no less important than the Suez Canal project.” The project would expand the port to accommodate ships carrying up to 150,000 tons of grain, as well as expand piers dedicated to smaller river and canal ships. This project will serve to quadruple the capacity of Egypt’s ports from 2.5 million tons to 10 million tons. It will be complete with food processing industries.</span></div><h5 style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">Conclusion</span></h5><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The new Egyptian government’s relaunching of long-abandoned development programs has ignited a spark of optimism in the country, which could become contagious in the rest of Africa. However, this development should not be assessed as an issue separate from the massive shift that has taken place in the past few years. China’s and the BRICS’ initiative to break ground for a new world order based on economic cooperation and respect for the sovereignty and independence of each and every nation has paved the road to this important development.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">As is evident from the facts presented above, China has already been involved in groundbreaking bilateral and multilateral economic development agreements with the nations of the Nile Basin and East Africa, over the past three years. Unfortunately, the U.S., Britain, and their allies in Europe, have been pursuing a “creative destruction” agenda in Africa. The war on Libya in 2011, with the involvement of Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s al-Qaeda jihadists fighting side-by-side with NATO, wreaked havoc in that nation, spilling over to Mali, Algeria, and Nigeria.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The support given by the Obama Administration to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt almost drove that nation to a bloody civil war. Egypt is now fighting terrorists both in Sinai in the east, and fending off terrorism emerging from Libya.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The failed, decades-long policies of the West in the Horn of Africa have created a failed state in Somalia. Somalia, which is bleeding internally, has also become a security threat to Kenya, particularly, and also to the international trade routes offshore in the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Eden, through pirate groups emerging out of Somalia. The Somali al-Qaeda-linked terror group Al-Shabab has intensified its terror attacks inside Kenya, since the latter entered into agreements to build the Lamu Port and Lamu Corridor with China. Somalia is not a hopeless case. However its salvation depends completely on the shift in international relations and the real development of the region around it.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;">The optimism in East Africa has to spread to West Africa and the rest of the continent, not the other way around, as the Ebola epidemic could potentially spread from the west to the east. All international efforts have to be focused on containing and eliminating the Ebola threat and its root causes, and in addition, as Helga Zepp-LaRouche declared at the recent Schiller Institute conference in Germany, should be accompanied by creating a new and just world economic order.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="fn1"></a><a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4146nile_basin_transport.html#fnB1">[1]</a> Source: Maersk 2011/Nile Basin Initiative.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="fn2"></a><a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4146nile_basin_transport.html#fnB2">[2]</a> Construction has been delayed by NGOs, and a court order to halt the work, until compensation for villages in the way of the track has been issued.</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="fn3"></a><a href="http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4146nile_basin_transport.html#fnB2">[3]</a> For more details, see the ERC website: <a href="http://www.erc.gov.et/">www.erc.gov.et</a></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-9181142398912362062014-10-24T02:10:00.001-07:002014-10-24T02:10:58.257-07:00For-Ethiopia Water Video<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U5sQHH6SZzs" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-58699246771215054462014-10-23T02:51:00.001-07:002014-10-23T02:51:39.839-07:00Save the Gambela National Park, Ethiopia.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lP-fvNojBQg" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-61506520658097697192014-10-23T02:48:00.001-07:002014-10-23T02:48:39.514-07:00Save the Gambela National Park, Ethiopia.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lP-fvNojBQg" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-88517635687066706502014-10-23T01:11:00.001-07:002014-10-23T01:11:11.119-07:00Great Barrier Reef Threatened by Coal Mining | Journal Reporter<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nw1AA5YbX-c" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-80824637254033226542014-10-08T00:33:00.001-07:002014-10-08T00:33:16.530-07:00Countries warn of risk of war as new Nile treaty delays | NTV<div class="panel-pane pane-token pane-node-title" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 35px; font-weight: lighter; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px; padding: 20px;"><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #8f0013; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -0.02em; line-height: 32px;">Countries that share the Nile waters on Monday warned that the region could go to war unless a new treaty on the use of the Nile waters is drawn up.</span></div></div><div class="panel-separator" style="background-color: #fbfafa; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 2px;"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-entity-field pane-node-field-image" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="http://www.ntvuganda.co.ug/sites/default/files/field/image/Nile%20Waters.gif" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="" src="http://www.ntvuganda.co.ug/sites/default/files/field/image/Nile%20Waters.gif" height="248" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 1236px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="432" /><br /><br />
<blockquote class="image-field-caption" style="background: rgb(250, 250, 250); border-color: rgb(0, 137, 209); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 10px; width: 1236px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18px;">Nile Basin countries have increased pressure on Egypt to get back to the negotiating table. FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP </div></blockquote></div></div></div></div></div><div class="panel-separator" style="background-color: #fbfafa; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 2px;"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-token pane-node-body" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; display: table; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; padding: 25px; width: 2268px;"><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">By AGGREY MUTAMBO | Africa Review</div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">Countries that share the Nile waters on Monday warned that the region could go to war unless a new treaty on the use of the Nile waters is drawn up.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">Nile Basin countries have increased pressure on Egypt to get back to the negotiating table for discussions on how the waters of the world’s longest river can be used.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">On Monday, participants gathered at Nairobi’s InterContinental Hotel for the Fourth Nile Basin Development Forum warned the region might face conflicts over water in future if a new agreement is not reached.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">“We are hoping that cooperation around the Nile is going to increase security and stability. The key words are equitable and responsible use of the Nile resources.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">“That is the only way we can do this peacefully. Otherwise if we don’t do it, we are going to be at war because of water,” Prof Judi Wakhungu, the Environment, Water and Natural Resources Cabinet Secretary said.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">The Nile Basin includes 11 countries that either use or are the source of much of the river water. They are Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Egypt, Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">Together, they created the Nile Basin Initiative in 1999 to start negotiations for a treaty that would lead to an “all-inclusive” use of the river. Eritrea participates in the NBI as an observer.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;"><strong style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; word-wrap: break-word;">Biggest share</strong></div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">Although the NBI was supposed to help reach the comprehensive framework agreement (CFA) that would guide proper use of the waters, the riparian states are concerned that Egypt is no longer willing to take part in negotiations.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">Egypt and Sudan have traditionally taken the biggest share of the Nile even though they have the least percentage share of contribution to its waters. This is because of two treaties signed in 1929 and in 1958 when most of the riparian states except Ethiopia were colonies of Britain, Belgium and France.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">“We the emerging countries have said we do not recognise the 1929 and 1954 agreements because that prevented us from using the Nile water resources.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">“We can argue that we as Kenyans can do anything we want with the water, but we have to work cooperatively with our partners and we are confident that this is the best way,” Prof Wakhungu said.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">About 25 dams are either under construction or have been planned by riparian states along the Nile.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">Egypt was represented at Monday’s forum by its ambassador to Nairobi, Mr Kadri Abdel-Motelib.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">The CFA opened for signing in 2010 has only been ratified by two countries; Rwanda and Ethiopia. Kenya says it will ratify the agreement before the end of the year.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">“It happens that all the 10 countries of the Nile Basin are in, except Egypt. That is why we need Egypt so we have one Nile Basin. The vision is clear that we have to use equitably and wisely, the water resources that we have. In these times, all of us have to benefit from the Basin,” Sudan’s Electricity minister Mutaz Abdalla Salim told reporters.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">He is the chairperson of the Nile Council of Ministers.</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">“We are in the process of correcting the whole thing together, and we are in good engagements to try and bring in Egypt and all other countries.”</div></div><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: DINPro-Regular; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; word-wrap: break-word;"><div style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 15px; text-align: justify; word-wrap: break-word;">Six ratifications will be enough to bring the CFA into effect, but Egypt has not signed the agreement.</div></div></div></div><span style="background-color: #fbfafa; color: #555555; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">- See more at: http://www.ntvuganda.co.ug/news/international/07/oct/2014/countries-warn-risk-war-new-nile-treaty-delays#sthash.BdCy6DhD.dpuf</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8973824401729505271.post-64725070477053561212014-08-11T06:53:00.001-07:002014-08-11T06:53:49.884-07:00El-Sisi: Army did not participate in operations beyond Egypt's borders - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online<a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/108119/Egypt/Politics-/ElSisi-Army-did-not-participate-in-operations-beyo.aspx">El-Sisi: Army did not participate in operations beyond Egypt's borders - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online</a>: "El-Sisi: Army did not participate in operations beyond Egypt's borders<br />
President El-Sisi denies foreign media reports that Egyptian armed forces units were deployed to Saudi Arabia, Libya; insists that parliamentary elections will be held on time<br />
Ahram Online , Sunday 10 Aug 2014<br />
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Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi delivers a speech, during the anniversary of the 1952 Egyptian revolution, at the presidential palace in Cairo, July 23, 2014 (Photo: Handout provided by The Egyptian Presidency)<br />
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The Egyptian army has not participated in any strikes or operations beyond Egypt's borders, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi told a group of Egyptian journalists and TV show hosts Saturday.<br />
Denying all reports in the foreign media claiming that there were Egyptian armed forces units in Saudi Arabia or Libya, El-Sisi said the responsibility of the Egyptian armed forces was to defend Egypt's national security. "Our calculations are always connected to our national security," he said during the meeting held at the presidential palace.<br />
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The president tackled several points, including relations with Ethiopia, the upcoming parliamentary elections, as well as the electricity crisis in the country.<br />
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Relations with Ethiopia<br />
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"Egypt and its people support Ethiopia and its development projects, if in return those projects won't harm Egypt's interest," El-Sisi said, referencing the Grand Renaissance Dam crisis.<br />
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Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are due to have another round of talks regarding the Grand Renaissance Dam and its impact on the Egypt and Sudan in Khartoum 26 August.<br />
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Parliamentary elections<br />
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"I will do everything in order to have parliamentary elections on time," El-Sisi told his audience, insisting there will be no delays in the vote.<br />
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"The upcoming parliament will have a huge role and more powers according to the constitution, and neither the presidency nor the president will interfere in its work," El-Sisi said, adding that he hoped the youth would participate widely and have a large role in the vote.<br />
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It is expected that parliamentary elections will be held by the end of the year.<br />
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Muslim Brotherhood<br />
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Concerning political reconciliation in Egypt, President El-Sisi said it has been on the table since the 4 July declaration after the 30 June protests.<br />
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"We did not kill anyone, while the other party and its religious leaderships were looking to clash with the public. If they agreed on reconciliation and decided to participate in the roadmap, then there would have been no problems," El-Sisi said in reference to the Muslim Brotherhood.<br />
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Former president Mohamed Morsi was ousted 3 July 2013 amid mass popular protest against Muslim Brotherhood rule. The Brotherhood was designated a terrorist group in December while as its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, which won a majority in the first parliamentary elections after the January 25 Revolution, was dissolved Saturday.<br />
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<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0