Blue Nile resonates with myths and fairy tales. More than that, it waters countries that it passes through-eleven in number -namely Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt. The word Nile comes from a Greek word “neilos” meaning river and strangely the blue part of it is acquired from the large amounts of fertile soil it erodes from the highlands of Ethiopia. The Nile Proper originates from Lake Victoria.
Everything was alright with the mighty river till the time the idea of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was floated and is being under construction since 2011 in the stretch of the river that passes through Ethiopia. When completed, the dam will generate hydro electricity to the tune of 6.45 gigwatts and will become the seventh largest dam in the world. The huge reservoir built could take anywhere between 5 and 15 years to fill with water and agreements have been reached between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt to build the dam, sharing water and managing it .
As the construction of the “renaissance” dam is nearing completion, Egyptian farmers are up against the dam since they fear that water from the Nile is now becoming scarce to irrigate their land. The Egyptian farmers say that the scarce water coming out after filling the huge reservoir will not be enough to irrigate the fertile lands in Egyptian side. Earlier, according to farmers the water was available year round. Now they irrigate the arable lands in rotation. That can also create skirmishes among farmers as to who would irrigate first.
Water scarcity has special significance to Egypt due to its population growth. From 35 million in 1970, in less than half a century, the population almost trebled to 100 million today. The Nile is the only source of water for Egypt for domestic use, while most of the other countries can depend on other rivers to meet their requirements.
Consultations among Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt are happening at regular intervals. Even the US President Donald Trump and the USTreasury Secretary had recently invited the representatives of the three countries to the US and had initial consultations with them, though Ethiopia was sulking to attend the meeting but finally send a second tier leadership for the consultation. As a follow up of the meeting, a few days back Egypt hosted a meeting of Sudan and Ethiopia to decide on the rational management of the dam and the water so that the dam will not adversely affect the use of water for agricultural as well as domestic uses. Though the US president assured an amicable solution, it seems to be a far cry. Ethiopia has stated strongly that it was not going to retreat in its efforts to complete and operationalize the dam.
The Ethiopian point of view is that the water would not be scarce to any country. More than that, the utility of the dam should be seen from the perspective of preventing flooding in the region due to excessive rains or other climatic variations and the electricity the dam can generate and supply to the energy-deficient countries in the belt.
There is a gainsay in telling that most of the benefits of the dam may accrue to Ethiopia and the gains of others are either marginal or bordering the negative side. That seems to be the cornerstone of dispute.
