The Protection of the Nile and its Riparian
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
China's backing for Ethiopia dam riles activists - World Watch - CBS News
It's a story that truly spans the globe: Activists from all over the world, including San Francisco, are trying to stop the construction of a dam in Ethiopia financed by a Chinese bank.
The Gibe 3 Dam is in the early phases of construction on Ethiopia's powerful Omo River, using $500 million dollars in equipment funded by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). The hydroelectric dam, one of the largest construction projects in Ethiopia's history, would regulate the flow of water along the Omo River as it courses through Ethiopia and into Kenya's massive Lake Turkhana -- a freshwater oasis in the heart of the desert.
The project has been mired in controversy since it was just a blueprint. The World Bank and the European Investment Bank financed smaller hydroelectric projects on the Omo River, but dropped consideration of the Gibe 3 Dam after viewing the environmental impact report commissioned by the Ethiopian government. Activists say the banks were scared away by the Ethiopian government's lack of transparency regarding construction plans and the fact that the Gibe 3 will have a profound ecological impact on the region's fragile ecosystem, from Ethiopia into Kenya.
A November 2010 hydrology report by the African Development Bank (pdf) (AfDB) noted that the Omo River is responsible for 90 percent of the water leading into Lake Turkhana. A major dam blocking the river would drain most of the lake, depriving 300,000 Kenyans of the water needed for agriculture, cattle herding and fishing. And that's just the first concern: The activists' extended list of fears about the dam seems as long as the Omo River itself.
Any changes to the Omo River's natural flood pattern could affect 70 percent of the "more important" species living around Lake Turkhana, according to the AfDB report. Also, in the long term, independent Ethiopian engineers have questioned the wisdom of building such a large dam in a region with a history of strong earthquakes.
That's not all. The area that will be flooded by the dam is home to low-level farmlands used by 300,000 Ethiopians. Food resources are already so scarce in the drought-hit border region between Kenya and Ethiopia that two of the main ethnic groups living there have resorted to violence in their bid for more land and water. In May, 70 ethnic Turkhana people from Kenya were killed when they attempted to buy food across the border in Ethiopia.
Landlocked Ethiopia is starved for electricity and also hopes to boost its revenue by exporting hydroelectricity. One section of the Kenyan government has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding to buy hydropower from the Gibe 3 dam. In a fax to CBS, the ICBC noted "relevant nations expressed interest in buying electricity from Ethiopia."
However, Friends of Lake Turkhana, an activist group battling the dam, is taking the Kenyan government to court to fight the agreement to buy electricity without conducting a full environmental impact assessment on the dam. Now that the ICBC bank in China is offering financial support for the dam, the Kenyan opponents to the dam are widening their campaign to stop construction of the Gibe 3.
The ICBC Bank has long been silent on its reasons for supporting controversial Gibe 3 Dam, until now. Activists from Kenya and International Rivers flew to Beijing to plea their case to the ICBC, but their meeting requests were ignored. So, I contacted ICBC Bank to ask about the widespread concerns regarding ecological and safety risks of building the GIBE 3 Dam. Days later, the unsigned letter from ICBC faxed to CBS News insisted, "credit and loan for all projects conforms to environmental requirements."
Further, the bank argues that other, smaller hydro projects on the Omo River, Gibe 1 and Gibe 2, were supported by the World Bank, the European Investment Bank and other financial institutions. The fax did not answer CBS News' question as to why the ICBC continues to support the Gibe 3 project when other financial institutions have stepped away.
The ICBC's annual general meeting begins Tuesday in Beijing and Hong Kong.
"Based on the serious findings of the [African Development Bank] hydrological impact report, which has now been published, ICBC should reconsider their funding of the Gibe 3 Dam," Peter Bosshard, Policy Director at International Rivers tells CBS News.
The Chinese government is pressuring the country's state-owned banks to invest in more projects outside of China. As Chinese banks extend their interests into international territory, activists from all over the world will likely find themselves spending more time in Beijing.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Egyptian company discovers gold deposit near Ethiopia Millennium Dam - Bikya Masr
CAIRO: A subsidiary of the Egyptian mining company ASCOM has discovered a consistent gold deposit in Ethiopia. The site is part of the Arab-Nubian Shield, a geological formation renowned for its richness in precious minerals, extending between Africa and the Arab Peninsula. According to unconfirmed sources, ASCOM will soon start the exploration of the area.
Originally established in 1975 as a department of ASEC Cement to offer Geology & Mining services clients, today ASCOM manages operative subsidiaries in United Arab of Emirates, Syria and Ethiopia.
ASCOM is also undertaking research for gold deposits along the Blue Nile of Sudan and in Algeria.
This timely announcement comes only few days after Egypt re-opened gold trade after a 6-week suspension due to popular unrest and to prevent illegal smuggling.
Egyptian Trade and Industry Minister Samir el-Sayyed lifted the ban on Monday after assuring that increasing stability in the stock market and in the economic and political conditions would allow gold trade to resume as normal.
But the site of ASCOM’s recent finding falls under the administration of the Benishangul State, the same region hosting the construction of the much discussed Ethiopian Millennium Dam on the river Nile.
Relations between Ethiopia and Egypt heated up in the last few weeks, as Egypt refused to undersign the Entebbe Agreement on the re-shuffling of Nile water shares, and strongly opposed the construction of the Millennium Dam.
Plans for the construction of the $5 billion Dam were inaugurated in late March. The Dam will be the world’s 10th in size, and is part of the country’s effort to reach the Millennium Development Goals.
Egyptian authority recently instructed the military to prepare for any eventuality regarding water disputes with Ethiopia following the construction of the dam.
Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs downplayed the announcement.
“It’s a psychological threat persisting from the early time of Egypt’s former President Anwar Sadat,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson Dina Mufti told Ethiopian newspaper The Reporter.
Ethiopian authorities and public opinion accuse Egyptian government of hindering upstream countries’ efforts to develop their energetic and economic potential related to the exploitation of water resources.
In the past days, a delegation of oppositional forces led by Egyptian Wafd party member Mostafa al-Gendi visited Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, aiming to illustrate how the Egyptian people envision a fair solution of important water issues after the revolution.
“We asked the Ugandan president to intervene in favor of Egypt regarding Nile water distribution,” said el-Gendi.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Nile row easing Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt |
The new atmosphere that has existed in Egypt since the 25 January Revolution has helped ease differences over the fair distribution of Nile water between the upper and lower Nile Basin states, with Egypt working on improving ties with these states in the hope of reaching a compromise.
On a recent visit to Ethiopia, one of the Nile Basin states, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf offered to increase trade ties between Egypt and Ethiopia in order to make full use of the resources of both states and underline the idea that all parties to the negotiations should be winners.
"We were in Uganda yesterday, and today we had discussions in Ethiopia. The atmosphere is completely different from what it was," Sharaf told journalists following talks with members of Ethiopia's business community and a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi that concluded on Saturday.
"When you look at trade between Ethiopia and Egypt, it's still a tiny fraction of total trade. We have to take care of that and to develop means to increase trade between our two countries," Sharaf said.
Ahmed El-Wakil, president of the Egyptian Chamber of Commerce, said that every effort was being made to create better relations between Egypt and the Nile Basin states, though the actions that followed these efforts would be just as important.
"Egypt has experience and know-how, and the African states have water, fledgling markets and other resources. Thus, we need to cooperate in a way that will lead to better living standards in these countries," El-Wakil told the Weekly.
Magawri Shehata, president of the Arab Association for Clean Water, agreed on the importance of boosting Egypt's relations with the Nile Basin states. "Egypt should work on boosting cooperation and creating common interests with the Nile Basin states on political, economic, technical and other levels," he said.
However, the most important achievement of Sharaf's visit was the formation of a committee of Egyptian, Sudanese and Ethiopian experts to study the effects of the proposed Millennium Dam in Ethiopia on the flow of Nile water to Sudan and Egypt.
Tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia had increased when Ethiopia declared that it was building a multi-billion dollar "Millennium Dam" on its share of the Nile, which provides 85 per cent of the Nile's water.
Officials in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa said the dam was being built to generate electricity and would not affect the flow of water, but Egypt and Sudan have been concerned about the possible effects of the dam on the water levels reaching the two countries.
Sharaf said that Egypt was not against the dam and that Egypt was willing to join a committee of Ethiopian, Egyptian and Sudanese experts to discuss its effects. Zenawi reassured Sharaf of Ethiopia's readiness to work in partnership with Egypt.
Shehata said that the proposed committee would look into the advantages and disadvantages of the dam in order to help the government take an informed decision. "It should be an unbiased committee that considers the negatives and positives of the project, together with the interests of the states involved," he told the Weekly.
Sharaf's visit to Addis Ababa came after Ethiopia agreed to postpone ratification of a treaty on sharing Nile water until a new Egyptian government has taken office and was able to join the negotiations.
The delay eases a long-running dispute between downstream countries, including Egypt and Sudan, which claim historic rights to the Nile water, and various upstream countries.
Shehata described the postponement as an important diplomatic step, since Ethiopia had already started laying the foundations of the dam before the ratification of the agreement and before another African state, Burundi, had signed it.
The postponement was a sign that a new page had been turned in the negotiations following Egypt's 25 January Revolution.
Zenawi's decision was first taken during a visit by a 48-member popular delegation to Ethiopia earlier this month, which received a warm welcome in the Ethiopian capital and succeeded in thawing Egyptian-Ethiopian relations.
The delegation called for the preservation of Egypt's historical water rights and a fresh start to the relationship between the two countries following the 25 January Revolution.
The delegation comprised three Egyptian presidential candidates, representatives from various political parties and movements, independent politicians, previous members of parliament, journalists, public figures and representatives from the youth groups that launched the 25 January Revolution.
Members of the delegation received similar assurances from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni during a visit to Uganda last month.
Tensions had erupted between Egypt and Sudan on the one hand and Ethiopia and the other Nile Basin states on the other when they failed to reach an agreement on the fair distribution of Nile waters.
Failure to reach an agreement prompted Ethiopia, along with Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya, to sign a pact in the Ugandan capital Entebbe in May last year giving other Nile Basin countries one year to join the pact before putting it into effect.
Sudan and Egypt dismissed the deal, while the Congo and Burundi initially refused to sign, though Burundi later signed. The agreement cannot be put into effect until at least six states sign it.
The pact was supposed to be a substitute for the 1929 and 1959 agreements, which gave Egypt the right to most of the more than 100 billion cubic metres of water that reach downstream countries annually and the right to veto new projects by other Nile states.
Although Egypt and Ethiopia signed an agreement in 1993, relations deteriorated after a failed assassination attempt on former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak during a visit to Addis Ababa in 1995.
In addition to Egypt and Ethiopia, the Nile Basin group of countries includes Burundi, the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, with Eritrea having observer status.
Egypt and Ethiopia are among the most influential states, and their improving relations are likely to improve cooperation among all the Nile basin states, which should be an important principle for the future.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Egypt and Sudan refuse to sign River Nile agreement | The London Evening Post AF
Egypt and Sudan have refused to put in place an agreement that would secure the future of the River Nile, which is the backbone of agriculture for nine North African countries, leaving the river’s future in limbo. But there are signs that the new government in Egypt could adopt a more co-operative stance and open the way for countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya to further their economic development using Nile water.
The deadline for the signing of the proposed Nile Basin agreement passed without the signatures of Egypt, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The agreement, more than a decade in making, would secure the waters of the Nile to ensure that dams, hydropower and agriculture can all flourish. Six countries have signed the text: Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.
One of the main sources of contention is Ethiopia’s proposal to build hydroelectric dams on the river, from which it could export energy to other African nations. Egypt is concerned that the dams would reduce the water flow vital to its agriculture. But the disputes stretch back nearly a century. In 1929, an attempt to secure the Nile for the benefit of Egypt and Britain, as the colonial power, resulted in treaties that still mean surrounding countries effectively have to seek permission from Egypt in order to make use of the Nile’s water. This is now unacceptable to the other countries.
A cruise liner on the River Nile. Although the source of the Nile is in Uganda, colonial masters handed sole power of the river to Egypt where it ends its long journey across several other African countries.
Ana Cascao, project manager at the Stockholm International Water Institute, said: “This would be a historic agreement. Without Egypt and Sudan, we are still in a standby situation. But I am hopeful that the new government later this year will change this.”