tagged w/ Nile River
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The expected emergence of a new state in southern Sudan following a January independence referendum is causing alarm in Cairo because the signs are the infant state will join other African countries battling Egypt for a greater share of the Nile River's waters.
The southern Sudan leader, Salva Kiir, recently visited President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, one of the upstream states opposed to Egypt's control of the Nile waters, to discuss building hydroelectric power stations to enhance development of the infant state.
That is guaranteed to incense Cairo, which vehemently opposes any upstream projects that would diminish the flow of the Nile, which runs into the Mediterranean at Alexandria.
Sudan lies astride the middle reaches of the Nile, the source of 90 percent of Egypt's water. The White Nile, which joins the Blue Nile in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, runs through southern Sudan. The Blue, which rises in the Ethiopian highlands, supplies more than two-thirds of the Nile's water flow.
The upstream states -- Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Ethiopia -- demand that Egypt and Sudan relinquish long-held rights to 74 percent of the Nile's waters.
These are enshrined in a 1929 agreement from the British colonial era. Egypt and Sudan refuse to give an inch. In May, most of the upstream states grouped together in a new alliance and gave the downstream states a year to agree to a more equitable share of the Nile waters.
They need this because of burgeoning populations, a growing demand for electricity and irrigation for food production and an imperative to stimulate development.
Under the 1929 agreement, Egypt had veto power over all upstream projects that involve the Nile's flow, particularly dam construction.
AllAfrica.com reported that Museveni told Kiir Uganda wants more dams to boost its generating power from 300 megawatts to 3,800 MW over the next five years.
"We also have plans to generate 17,000 MW by 2025," the Ugandan leader disclosed.
According to U.S. diplomatic cables unveiled by WikiLeaks, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak sought to convince Washington to postpone the scheduled Jan. 8 independence referendum in southern Sudan because of the potential loss of Nile water.
Ethiopia, the source of the Blue Nile, has strong links with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which has ruled southern Sudan since a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war between the region, mainly Christian and animist, and the Arab Muslim north.
So do Kenya and Uganda, which supported the southerners' struggle against the Khartoum regime of President Omar al-Bashir.
Indeed, Ethiopia's leader, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, one of the most militant of Egypt's critics, claimed in November that Cairo sought to destabilize his country by supporting rebel groups opposed to his regime.
That accusation, devoid of any diplomatic discourse, apparently caught the Egyptians unawares and marked a sharp escalation in the diplomatic war of words over the Nile.
airo denied that. But Egypt and other Arab states provided support for Eritrean separatists who fought for independence from Ethiopia in 1961-91.
Zenawi went on to warn Egypt it would be defeated if it invaded Ethiopia, presumably through Sudan or Eritrea, which border Ethiopia.
However, undertaking such a complex operation is difficult to imagine, even though Egypt considers the Nile a vital national security issue.
"Nobody who has tried that has lived to tell the story," Zenawi cautioned.
Egypt did try to invade Ethiopia in the 19th century after it had conquered Sudan. But that campaign ended in failure in 1875.
Why Zenawi would want to raise the temperature on the Nile issue right now is not entirely clear.
But he has domestic problems and the Nile provides a diversion. He has infuriated Egypt by building five huge dams on the Nile over the last decade and has started construction of a new $1.4 billion hydroelectric facility.
Osman Mirghani, senior editor-at-large of the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, was concerned enough to observe that the Nile question "is something that in the near future may come to overshadow all other regional issues."
"Anybody listening to the statements, observing the frantic maneuvers, or watching the growing tension, might already feel that the Nile Water War has begun in earnest."The expected emergence of a new state in southern Sudan following a January... more
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Hopes that the 10 Nile Basin countries would sign a water-sharing agreement at a meeting in Alexandria to settle one of the planet's most contentious water issues have been dashed — for now at least — after Egypt and Sudan rejected any cuts in their traditional quotas.
But the prospects of a long-term accord on an equitable share-out of the waters of the 3,470-mile Nile, the world's longest river, remain dim, largely because Egypt, the largest user, refuses to surrender its veto powers and its historic rights over the river that has been its lifeblood since time immemorial.
The Nile and its tributaries flow through Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.
The water ministers of these states put off finalizing a treaty for six months when they wrapped up their four-day Alexandria meeting on Tuesday.
In May, the riparian states had drafted a Cooperative Framework Agreement at a summit in the Congo, but Egypt and Sudan refused to sign because it made no mention of their historic claims on Nile water that date back to the colonial era.
Cairo and Khartoum, which do not see eye-to-eye on most things, hailed Tuesday's postponement. "It's a big victory," a senior Sudanese official declared. "They were going to sign the agreement beginning Aug. 1 regardless of Egypt and Sudan."
The dispute over the Nile's life-giving waters has stirred resentment and tension for years now. But now the feuding over water appears to be intensifying.
Some international law experts have gone so far as to suggest that if political and diplomatic efforts fail to settle the issue, the use of military force would be the only option.
Others say it is unlikely that any of these states would resort to such extreme action. But the U.N. Development Program recently voiced concern that conflict over shrinking water resources could trigger "water wars" — as has happened before in the arid Middle East.
Climate change in recent years has reduced rainfall, leading to lower water flows in the Nile and jeopardizing hydraulic projects in several states.
Egypt and neighboring Sudan are the Nile's largest consumers. Egypt, which lies at the end of the river as it flows into the Mediterranean, does not contribute any water to the Nile system.Hopes that the 10 Nile Basin countries would sign a water-sharing agreement at a... more
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These places accommodate some miraculous and natural superpowers that man could not solve their mystery clues even with the most advance devices human had made so far. Their myths and legendary rumors remain unknown and mysterious to the outside world.These places accommodate some miraculous and natural superpowers that man could not... more
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Last night I had the opportunity to meet one of the most accomplished mountain and river expedition leaders in the world. Pasquale Scaturro, a geophysicist, adventurer and expedition leader, has been exploring the far reaches of the planet for over 25 years.
Scaturro is best known for his recent IMAX film, Mystery of the Nile, which documented the first complete descent of the 3,260-mile Blue Nile and Nile River--from its source high in the mountains of Ethiopia to the Nile delta spilling into the Mediterranean Sea.Last night I had the opportunity to meet one of the most accomplished mountain and... more
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