Page 33 - DinQ 225 October 2021 Part -2

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Negotiating the Nile: Lake Nasser to irri-

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Negotiating the Nile:
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gate Egypt’s sandy
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Treaties and Agreements over the Nile Waters Western Desert,
Treaties and Agreements over the Nile Waterss
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increasing Egypt’s
need for Nile water
in Sudan). Muslim Somalis to fight for the lib- even if they maintained their 1959
The treaty so negatively affected the eration of Ethiopia’s Ogaden re- treaty share of 55 billion cubic me-
upriver states that it provided the inspi- gion. ters.

ration for the Nyerere Doctrine, named Ethiopia won the war with So- In anger and disbelief, the Ethio-
after independent Tanzania’s first presi- malia in 1977-78 and retained the pian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
dent, which asserted that former colo- Ogaden. Its 30 year war with Eri- protested: “While Egypt is taking the
nies had no obligation to abide by trea- trea, an Egyptian ally, came at a tre- Nile water to transform the Sahara
ties signed for them by Great Britain. Desert into something green, we in
mendous cost. Haile Selassie was Ethiopia—who are the source of
Emperor Haile Selassie was of- overthrown in 1974, and after 1993
fended by President Nasser’s exclusion Eritrea won independence and 85% of that water—are denied the
possibility of using it to feed our-
of Ethiopia in the Nile Waters Agree- Ethiopia became a landlocked
ment and in country—although it still possessed selves.”

planning for the headwaters of the Blue Nile. He then began plans for the
building the In the middle of the 1980s, rains Grand Renaissance Dam.
Aswan Dam.
He negoti- failed in the Ethiopian highlands, International water law has not
causing a serious water crisis upriver
ated the 1959 resolved differences about ownership
divorce of and downriver. One million Ethio- of Nile Waters. The Helsinki Agree-
pians died as a result of drought and
the Ethiopian ment of 1966 proposed the idea of
O r t h o d o x famine—made worse by Civil War “equitable shares”—and the idea was
with Eritrea. Egypt averted disaster
Church from taken up again in the 1997 United
the Orthodox but Aswan’s turbines were nearly Nations Convention on the Law of
shut down, creating an electric
Church in Non-Navigational Uses of Interna-
Alexandria, power nightmare; and crops failed tional Watercourses.
in the delta, bringing the real pros-

ending 1600 A proposal for “equitable shares”
years of insti- pect of famine. was again put forward in the 1999

tutional mar- As a result, Egyptians came to Nile Basin Initiative, which included
riage. understand that their great Aswan all the affected countries. Unfortu-
He also be- Dam had not solved their historic nately the initiative did not resolve
gan planning dependency on upriver Nile water. the conflict between Egypt and Su-
for several In 1987, after years of hostile rheto- dan’s claims of historic rights and the
dams on the ric, the Egyptian President Hosni
is taking the Nile water to transform the Sahara Desert into something green, we in Ethiopia upper river states’ claims for equita-
are denied the possibility of using it to feed ourselves.” Blue Nile and Mubarak and the Ethiopian Presi- ble shares.
its tributaries, dent Haile Mariam Mengistu re-
contributing $10 million dollars from placed the language of threat and In 2010, six upstream countries
the Ethiopian treasury towards a study confrontation with words of con- (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda,
by the U.S. Department of Reclamation ciliation and cooperation. Burundi, and Tanzania) signed a Co-
resulting in a seventeen volume report operative Framework Agreement
completed in 1964 and titled Land and Then in the 1990s the Ethiopian seeking more water shares. Egypt and
Water Resources of the Blue Nile Ba- rains returned and, remarkably, Sudan rejected the agreement be-
sin: Ethiopia. Hosni Mubarak redoubled efforts cause it challenged their historic wa-
begun during the Sadat administra- ter rights.
Nasser responded by encouraging tion to build the Toshka Canal, one E E t t h i i o p i i a a n d t h e L e s s o n s
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Ethiopia and the Lessons
Ethiopia and the Lessons
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Muslims in Eritrea (reunified with of the world’s most expensive and
D
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m
B
ui
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n
f
of Dam Buildingg
of Dam Building
Ethiopia after World War II) to secede ambitious irrigation projects. This o o f D a m B ui l l d i i n g
from Ethiopia. He also encouraged plan would take 10% of waters in (To be continued)
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33
DINQ MEGAZINE April 2021 STAY SAFE 33
ድንቅ መጽሄት Stay Safe October 2021
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