The Protection of the Nile and its Riparian
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Egypt loses monopoly over Nile waters-The East African: -
Egypt’s control over the Nile waters came to an end last week, paving the way for development projects upstream of the river.
In a ceremony in Kampala last week, six countries ratified the Cooperation Framework Agreement (CFA) that repeals the colonial treaty of 1929.
The World Bank Trust, which manages the Nile Basin resources, had been blocking development projects along the river because the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) lacked legal basis, which the CFA now provides.
“As long as we do not have the CFA, Egypt and Sudan will continue to block development, because NBI has no legal recognition in other countries,” said Dr Callist Tindimugaya, Uganda’s Nile Basin Initiative representative and also Commissioner of Water Resources Regulation at the Ministry of Water and Environment.
The colonial treaty barred other countries from using the water for development purposes that could impact on water flowing to Egypt.
In 1959, however, Egypt and Sudan, renegotiated the treaty and came up with the Full Utilisation of Nile Water Agreement, which allowed the construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt for mutual benefit of both countries.
“Without consent of Egypt, no irrigation or hydroelectric works can be established on the tributaries of the Nile or their lakes if such works can cause a drop in water levels harmful to Egypt,” reads the section in the 1929 treaty.
The breakaway group of riparian countries — Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania—undertook technical audits that culminated in the CFA last year.
In February this year, Burundi became the sixth nation to sign up to the agreement to alter the historical water-sharing arrangements for the River Nile, thus raising sufficient numbers to move the process towards ratification.
Egypt, Sudan and DRC did not sign, while Eritrea maintains observer status.
The organisation’s name changed from Nile Basin Initiative to Nile Basin Commission with headquarters in Uganda.
The CFA provides for sharing of benefits and costs of maintaining the river.
The Regional Interconnection Project — a $385 million power project expected to be completed in 2014 — is one of the development programmes that are expected to generate cross border electricity for the benefit of all countries.
flashad
In a ceremony in Kampala last week, six countries ratified the Cooperation Framework Agreement (CFA) that repeals the colonial treaty of 1929.
The World Bank Trust, which manages the Nile Basin resources, had been blocking development projects along the river because the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) lacked legal basis, which the CFA now provides.
“As long as we do not have the CFA, Egypt and Sudan will continue to block development, because NBI has no legal recognition in other countries,” said Dr Callist Tindimugaya, Uganda’s Nile Basin Initiative representative and also Commissioner of Water Resources Regulation at the Ministry of Water and Environment.
The colonial treaty barred other countries from using the water for development purposes that could impact on water flowing to Egypt.
In 1959, however, Egypt and Sudan, renegotiated the treaty and came up with the Full Utilisation of Nile Water Agreement, which allowed the construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt for mutual benefit of both countries.
“Without consent of Egypt, no irrigation or hydroelectric works can be established on the tributaries of the Nile or their lakes if such works can cause a drop in water levels harmful to Egypt,” reads the section in the 1929 treaty.
The breakaway group of riparian countries — Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania—undertook technical audits that culminated in the CFA last year.
In February this year, Burundi became the sixth nation to sign up to the agreement to alter the historical water-sharing arrangements for the River Nile, thus raising sufficient numbers to move the process towards ratification.
Egypt, Sudan and DRC did not sign, while Eritrea maintains observer status.
The organisation’s name changed from Nile Basin Initiative to Nile Basin Commission with headquarters in Uganda.
The CFA provides for sharing of benefits and costs of maintaining the river.
The Regional Interconnection Project — a $385 million power project expected to be completed in 2014 — is one of the development programmes that are expected to generate cross border electricity for the benefit of all countries.
flashad
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Mass killings imminent in Uganda, Daily Monitor
:
After turbulent regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote II, Uganda has enjoyed relative peace for the last 25 years under President Museveni’s stewardship but the country is now named among those facing threats of mass killings, a new report says.
According to internationally-acclaimed Peoples under Threat Index 2011, the current human rights violations and communal tensions in the country, if not checked, could spark off mass killings in Uganda.
“There has been a national conversation in Uganda about the unpredictable nature of the transition the country is taking,” said Mr Perazzi Marusca, the spokesperson for Minority Rights Group International (MRG), which compiles the annual survey.
‘The situation is exacerbated by the mistrust between central government, political parties, and kingdoms, heightened by the government’s swift passing of the Institution of Traditional or Cultural Leaders’ Bill 2011 and arbitrary arrests of opposition leaders,” adds Mr Marusca .
MRG is a UK-based non-governmental organisation working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide.
Recent events
In the last one month, Uganda has witnessed the worst protests in recent history of people opposing the increasing commodity prices due to rising inflation.
The protests, which have so far claimed at least 10 lives, have met stiff resistance from the State, which accuses the opposition of trying to topple the government through stirring mass uprisings. Several opposition leaders have been arrested and imprisoned for allegedly inciting violence.
According to the survey, Cote d’lvoire, which has just suffered post-election violence that left hundreds of lives lost, is ranked the most significant riser in this year’s survey in Africa, while Afghanistan leads globally.
The report, launched in Nairobi last Thursday, says despite the ouster of Laurent Gbagbo and the installation of President Alessane Ouattara, the risk of further killing remains high in Cote d’lvoire, with over one million internally displaced, and armed militias on both sides threatening revenge attacks.
The index is created from a basket of 10 indicators, all known antecedents to mass violence, including the rule of law, prevailing conflict and previous experience of genocide or political mass killings.
They reflect the fact that communities are more at risk in states with poor governance, prone to conflict and with a record of previous killings.
Worst countries
Over the last five years, Peoples under Threat has pioneered the use of statistical analysis to identify situations around the world where communities are at risk of mass killing.
On many occasions, countries that have risen sharply up the table have later become scene of gross rights violations, among them Sri Lanka, Sudan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Yemen.
Other African countries that have risen significantly in the table this year are Guinea and Libya. Somalia and Sudan, where violence is ongoing, remain at the overall head of the table.
The survey says more than half of the top 10 countries are African states, including DR Congo, Ethiopia and Nigeria.
Egypt News - Egypt approves of Ethiopia Renaissance Dam in principle
Egypt News - Egypt approves of Ethiopia Renaissance Dam in principle: "Egypt approves of Ethiopia Renaissance Dam in principle
Written by Egypt News
MONDAY, 16 MAY 2011
An official source said that Egypt has in principle approved the Renaissance Dam that Ethiopia intends to build on its borders with Sudan this year
The source added that Prime Minister Essam Sharf and his Ethiopian counterpart have agreed that an Egyptian technical committee examine the blueprints of the dam, so as to determine whether it would adversely affect Egypt’s Nile water quota, and that Egypt might participate in the construction of the dam, which is expected to cost around US$4.7 billion.
An agreement has also been reached by which Egypt and Sudan will buy electricity from Ethiopia’s power station in Mendaya, which has the capacity to provide 1200 megawatts to Sudan and another 2000 to Egypt. A related agreement allows for Egypt to import a large number of Ethiopian livestock.
“More than 30 Egyptian companies have already asked to import meat from Ethiopia due to its high quality and low price,” said Ayman Eissa, head of the Egyptian-Ethiopian Business Council.
He added that Egypt aims to link its economic development to that of Ethiopia, in order to avoid unilateral projects that would harm the interest of either co"
Written by Egypt News
MONDAY, 16 MAY 2011
An official source said that Egypt has in principle approved the Renaissance Dam that Ethiopia intends to build on its borders with Sudan this year
The source added that Prime Minister Essam Sharf and his Ethiopian counterpart have agreed that an Egyptian technical committee examine the blueprints of the dam, so as to determine whether it would adversely affect Egypt’s Nile water quota, and that Egypt might participate in the construction of the dam, which is expected to cost around US$4.7 billion.
An agreement has also been reached by which Egypt and Sudan will buy electricity from Ethiopia’s power station in Mendaya, which has the capacity to provide 1200 megawatts to Sudan and another 2000 to Egypt. A related agreement allows for Egypt to import a large number of Ethiopian livestock.
“More than 30 Egyptian companies have already asked to import meat from Ethiopia due to its high quality and low price,” said Ayman Eissa, head of the Egyptian-Ethiopian Business Council.
He added that Egypt aims to link its economic development to that of Ethiopia, in order to avoid unilateral projects that would harm the interest of either co"
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Chile & Ethiopia on Death Dams
"It's the most beautiful place, I believe, on the planet," said Kennedy, who kayaks there every year. "I –don't know any place like Patagonia."
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a lawyer for the US-based National Resources Defense Council, appealed to Pinera to call off the projectChilean environmentalists are fighting to stop the deadly dams to be constructed in the Andean glaciers to the Pacific Ocean through green valleys and fjords, while the Ethiopian dictator is preparing to build a deadly dam that will endanger million of lives of the riparian nations. The Pacified Ethiopian are forced to endorese the Death dam which will be the instrument to sell their fertile lands.
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In contrary to Ethiopia Chile is a nation with its energy-intensive mining industry clamoring for more power and living standards improving, while Ethiopia is damming its rivers for the land Grabbers not even the local energy consumption. This $7-billion project to dam two of the world's wildest rivers for electricity has won environmental approval Monday from a Chilean government commission despite a groundswell of opposition while the Ethiopian dictatorial regime is not even take any measure to seek any environmental tests.
It was hidden as project X by the Ethiopian Dictator. The Chili and political appointees in the democratically elected President Sebastian Pinero’s government - concluded a three-year environmental review by approving five dams on the Baker and Pascua rivers in Aysen, a mostly road less region of remote southern Patagonia where rainfall is nearly constant and rivers plunge which will definitively destroy the last remaining wonders of the Earth.
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The Chilean dams all together could generate 2.75 gig watts, nearly a third of central Chile's current capacity, within 12 years while the megalomaniac Ethiopian Nile Death dam is suppose to produce Upon completion, will have an electric generation capacity of 6,000MW, three times more than the combined capacity of all Ethiopia’s existing dams.
When we go back to Chile the dams would drown 14,000 acres (5,700 hectares), require carving clear-cuts through forests, and eliminate whitewater rapids and waterfalls that attract ecotourism. Aysen region, while the Ethiopian gigantic dam will cover two time the Lake Tana which is from 3,000 to 3,500 km² according to the rainy seasons.
In Chile the Dam would destroy habitat for the endangered Southern Huemul deer: Fewer than 1,000 of the diminutive animals, while in the Nile Valley of Ethiopia an estimated Number of Flora and Fauna will be lost forever to come. In the contrary to the Chilean the Ethiopian dam will endanger the Lives of the people in Nile basin countries.
The Investors have spent Chile over $220 million on the project so far, but opposition has grown to 61 per cent of Chileans according to the latest Ipsos Public Affairs poll, and the government is concerned about a backlash. The Ethiopians even do not have a true democracy like that of Chile and are forced to accept whatever the Dictator dictates which Chile experienced a despotic regimes of the General in her recent past.
The Ethiopian the dam is contracted by Italian company Salini Costruttori for €3,350bln ($4,916bln). The Dam will be the biggest hydroelectric plants ever built in Africa, producing 5250 MW. Apart from forced contributions by Ethiopian institutions and citizens, there are serious suspicions that the Ethiopian Government will not be able to fund the work.
“The provenience of most funding for this and other Ethiopian Dams is utterly unclear,” declared an ex-officer of the Italian Cooperation in Ethiopia who refused to be credited.
Chile is the world's largest copper producer and e recently approved Latin America's largest coal-fired plant, to power a mine near the northern deserts. Two other coal plants received the okay on Friday. Thus its power grid has recently been under increased strain compared to the Ethiopian embryonic mining industry, where the dam is destined just for the land grabbers. Again the Chilean government is not selling its fertile land for land Grabbers while Ethiopia has already sold most of its cultivable land to the foreign investors at the same time over 3 million Ethiopian are starving of death.
In contrary to the Ethiopian death Dam which will end killing millions, the Chilean HidroAysen is suppose to help Chile to receive the cheapest, cleanest electricity possible? Though Several Chilean energy experts also dismissed solar as uncompetitive and years away from relevancy, a huge US$2.2 billion, 2.6 gigawatt solar project being built in the Mojave desert with private money and US government guarantees The latter will be the best example to the Ethiopians to learn from rather than building a destructive death dam and create undue conflict with the neighboring countries.
Great dam are highly environmental risks and catastrophic with moving tectonic regions and earth quake prone countries like Ethiopia and Chile. Westerners that had build greet dams in the past have proved highly risky to the surrounding population as seen in China and the Us in recent years with the increasing floods and earth quakes.
Related
Thousands protest Chile mega-dam | Video | Reuters.com
Protest against new hydroelectric dams in Chile |
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