Experts are urging the UN Security Council to promote “hydro-diplomacy” as the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) continues to heat up. Egypt and Sudan are actively fighting the NBI, supported by six African countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and the newest member Burundi.
Ethiopia has proposed the building of a 5,000-MW hydrodam to be built on the Nile, but Egypt and Sudan are saying that it must meet the approval of all Nile Basin countries. The two countries are attempting to uphold rights given via a 1929 colonial era treaty with Egypt controlling 87% and Sudan holding 13% of the Nile’s waters. The treaty also states that any new project from upstream countries on the Nile had to be met with Egypt’s approval.
The UN says that the Middle East and Africa “provoke perhaps the greatest concern about water shortage: by 2025, 40 countries in the regions are expected to experience water stress or scarcity.” However, very few wars have resulted over water scarcity in the past, but many claim that the likelihood of conflict is increasing. The UN said, “The basis for most projects for future conflicts is that with the growth of demand, the decline in freshwater availability (through groundwater mining and pollution) and the adverse health effects from poor water quality, scarcity will result in violence and water wars.” It added, “Yet fighting over water makes very little sense economically or politically.”
While it might not make sense “economically or politically” to inflict violence over water territories, very few conflicts have ever made sense either economically or politically. What can be said is that the water issue – including new dams being built along the Nile – are a cause for concern. However, just as Alternative Energy Africa pointed out March 14 (Egypt, Sudan Slapped by Ethiopia’s New Nile Dam), Ethiopia is striking at a ripe time just when Sudan and Egypt have larger problems to consider (ie Egypt’s upcoming elections and Sudan’s split).
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