Wafaa Allam - Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

        The Nile River is the longest river in the world and 11 countries in Africa depend on its water for survival, these countries are known as the Nile Basin Countries. The Nile is derived from two rivers, the Blue Nile and the White Nile. The Blue Nile originates from Lake Tana in Ethiopia, making Ethiopia the origin of the Nile and the country that has the largest effect on the water. As a result of that, Ethiopia wasn’t able to build any dams or barriers on either river because it would affect the amount of water reaching the other countries. However, Ethiopia started building a dam, 3 years ago, on the Blue Nile River known as the Renaissance dam. Since the Blue Nile is the source of the Nile, the effect on Egypt would be more like a disaster since it’s the last country that the Nile passes through.

          These effects were discussed and explained by the Prime minister of Egypt, Hesham Kandil, and the President Mohamed Mursi. Hesham Kandil was able to look at this with a professional point of view as he was the previous minister of irrigation and describes it as an “act of defiance.” The Blue Nile River contributes with about 80% - 85% of the Nile’s water, by building a dam on it, the amount of water would be significantly reduced, and as he mentioned, the current share of Egypt is not coping with the increase of population; in other words, Egypt currently is looking at how to increase the amount of water and not in a situation that allows any deficiency of amount of water. Kandil commented that Egypt is now at a Water Poverty” stage and therefore the president declared in his last speech on Monday June 10^th that the government will not give up one drop of water of the legal share otherwise it will be clear war. The foreign minister of Egypt said “No Nile, No Egypt” since Egypt doesn’t only depend on the Nile for Drinking water, but also hydroelectricity is generated from the high dam in Aswan. In order to generate electricity from the dam, a certain pressure and amount of water are required, if decreased; it will cause the inactiveness of many factories and by its turn affecting the production cycle and the economy on a larger basis.

          Can Egypt turn into a graveyard? That is the fear of 5 million Egyptian farmers after the news about the dam was spread. The farmers give responsibility to the Ministry of Irrigation if their agriculture land is damaged from thirst. Egypt’s geographic position makes it the driest country of all the Nile Basin Countries and the least that rain falls making its 95% dependence for water is on the Nile’s water. Beside the fact that the percent of desertification became 30% due to the expansion of building, the agriculture in Egypt will be at a critical stage if the amount of water was cut down.

          This is a stage where a clear precise action should be taken since this is a matter of life or death as Kandil mentioned. There was no known action taken by the President Mursi, the Prime Minister Kandil or the Minister of Irrigation Mohamed Bahaa El-Din and therefore the syndicate of the farmers decided they are going to send a delegation of people to Ethiopia to discuss the effects of the dam on their lands and reach a compromise assuring that if they are going to wait for the president the lands would go dry. The Chairman of the syndicate of the farmers added “the water already doesn’t reach many lands in various cities, what if the amount of water decreases as well?”

          The government had a different direction in solving this issue, a meeting was arranged to discuss the possible outcomes of the project. Many solutions were proposed and president Mursi said “All options are open” when it comes to Egypt’s water share including going to Ethiopia to talk with the government, sabotage of the dam, backing the Ethiopian rebels to destroy the dam, the interference of the Egyptian intelligent services or spreading rumors to scare the Ethiopians.

          “No force could stop the Nile Dam Project” says Ethiopia. Ethiopia claims that Egypt would benefit from clean energy generated by the plant and reduce the usage of sediments. It’s a matter of life or death to the Egyptians and a great benefit to the Ethiopian a political and resource conflicts could be the result between the two countries.