River Nile

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River Nile

Post by Chris »

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 40124.html


Ethiopia has begun diverting the flow of the River Nile as part of its controversial scheme to build Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam.


Construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam has already caused significant concern in Egypt, which is downstream of Ethiopia and totally dependent on the Nile for water.

Yesterday, the Horn of Africa state arrested a journalist for an Ethiopian newspaper who had met farmers evicted from near the site of the dam, which is the continent’s biggest engineering project.

Muluken Tesfahun was detained after attempting to interview some of the hundreds of evicted farmers, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). It was the second arrest of a reporter in connection with the dam. The CPJ’s Mohamed Keita accused the Ethiopian government of “criminalising independent journalists”.

The Grand Renaissance, located in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 25 miles (40km) from the border with Sudan, is the centrepiece of a $12bn (£8bn) string of dams with which Ethiopia aims to turn itself into the region’s main energy exporter.

Engineers began to divert the flow of the river on Tuesday in order to lower water levels and advance construction, which is due to be completed in 2015.

The current diversion is not expected to affect river flows but concerns remain over the longer-term impact of the dam. “This now enables us to carry out civil engineering work without difficulties,” said Mihret Debebe, chief executive officer of the state-run Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. “The aim is to divert the river by a few metres and then allow it to flow on its natural course.”

Some scientists working in Egypt, Sudan and Italy have warned that the dam could be a “catastrophe” for downstream countries, and reduce the flow by up to a fifth while it is being filled. The project has been mired in controversy since it was announced in 2011, with no independent environmental impact study yet released. The contract for construction was awarded without competitive bidding to the Italian company Salini Construttori. Large international lenders such as the World Bank opted out of financing the project, with concerns over transparency. They were also accused of succumbing to Egyptian pressure to shun the dam which is planned to generate 6,000 megawatts.

Ethiopia claims that it is financing the dam from government funds, and has launched a bond with a return of 5 per cent. However, it has been accused of coercing public sector workers into buying the bonds. Once synonymous with famine, the Ethiopian state has overseen rapid economic growth and deep poverty reduction in the last decade, but has been criticised for doing so at the expense of democratic rights.

Two treaties signed more than 50 years ago gave Egypt the lion’s share of the water from the Nile. But those deals, so crucial to one country, set up an imbalance of resources that has led analysts to look to this river system as the likely theatre for the first of the long-heralded water wars.

When five of the 10 Nile basin countries signed up to a modern-day agreement that would give them a greater share of the waters, it was greeted in the Egyptian press as a “death sentence”.

The White Nile rises in East Africa in Lake Victoria and drains through Uganda into Sudan where it meets in Khartoum, with the Blue Nile flowing from Ethiopia’s Lake Tana. Historically Egypt has threatened to go to war over the Nile but that is highly unlikely now. Egypt’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Mohamed Idrees, said his country must treat the dam as a “reality” as it has become a “national project” for the upstream nation.


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Re: River Nile

Post by Bullet Magnet »

OH, I dont know, :tk :tk :tk The Banks and thier puppets enjoy a good war or 2, and it is good for the Economy.... :cool:

You just need the right excuse and chuck in a few lies to get the people angry.... :cg
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Re: River Nile

Post by Stevepj »

Bullet Magnet wrote:OH, I dont know, :tk :tk :tk The Banks and thier puppets enjoy a good war or 2, and it is good for the Economy.... :cool:

You just need the right excuse and chuck in a few lies to get the people angry.... :cg
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Re: River Nile

Post by Chocolate Eclair »

So if Egypt is aware of this then they need to look at the High Dam and start stock piling water behind it, in the same way they should have stock piled fuel for the power stations, knowing it would be in short supply for the Summer and thus creating the regular power cuts.
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Re: River Nile

Post by carrie »

If I understand it correctly the problem with the power cuts is that the Egyptian Govt. haven't enough foreign currency to buy the oil to run the power stations so how on earth could they stockpile fuel. As for the dam proposed by the Ethiopeans it has been a talking point amongst Egyptians for the past two weeks, and how much water can you stockpile behind the Aswan dam and for how long would it last?
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Re: River Nile

Post by Bullet Magnet »

Dont forget, there is also billions of tons of good quality eau Natural fertiliser in the Aswan dam..
Now, if that can be dug out and sold on, then it makes for a good profitable industry and more room for the water... :cool:
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Re: River Nile

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Am searching my brain (and that is a feat when nothing is there) for the source info but a few months ago I read an article and if memory serves the Chinese are basically funding the damn in exchange for transportation rights.......??? Does that tidbit ring a bell with anybody else? Can't for the life of me remember exactly where I read it (probably a doctor's office while I was killing time).

Great article BTW Chris - enjoyed reading it.
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Re: River Nile

Post by Bullet Magnet »

The Millenum dam has been on the cards for years, personally I am surprised that is is actually happening.
I guess they will use Hydro power to generate Electricity as well..

Water could become a contention as it is in America, where places like L.A and Las Vegas consume vast amounts of the water that comes from Canada and they leave very little for those South American countries downstream... Yanks, eh.. Gotta love 'em... :cool:
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Re: River Nile

Post by biosceptic »

Bullet Magnet wrote:The Millenum dam has been on the cards for years, personally I am surprised that is is actually happening.
I guess they will use Hydro power to generate Electricity as well..

Water could become a contention as it is in America, where places like L.A and Las Vegas consume vast amounts of the water that comes from Canada and they leave very little for those South American countries downstream... Yanks, eh.. Gotta love 'em... :cool:
A little extravagant in your attack on the USA. I am reasonably sure that the Rivers that start in the USA and flow south, only get as far as Mexico and not as far as South America :lol:

While I am sure the Americans negotiated from a position of power, at least there is a track record of over 100 years of agreements on managing this resource. That is much better than in many other countries where water resources are shared.
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Re: River Nile

Post by Alistair1967 »

I am not sure how it possible to 'stockpile' water behind the dam, without a) increasing the flood risk some areas and potentially destroying certain monuments and b) affecting the operation of the generating turbines?
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Re: River Nile

Post by Hafiz »

Water or the lack of it has been a looming problem for Egypt for years and years and the previous dictatorship did little to improve water efficiency (increase charges, assist with water saving by farmers etc.) or establish treaties with neighbors. Another issue left to simmer.

The Ethiopian dam proposal has been known for a long time as have similar proposals by the Sudanese and Ugandans. The intergovernmental authority for carving up the water is not working and, in any case, the Ethiopians and the others have a good case and currently get much less benefit than Egypt. Many forget that Sudan's case is made stronger because the back end of the dam extends into Sudanese territory and the Sudanese get little benefit from this.

Climate change is also likely to have an effect on the water available.

The failure to build/extend a (the) dam since the high dam in the 1960's and 70's shows just how incompetent the dictatorship was.. They never developed a plan b and the talk of desalination is not economic and/or will not help agriculture. In any case the high dam was probably badly built by the ever incompetent Russians and there has never been a solution to the silting up of Lake Aswan. The barrages date back 140 years, were established by the large scale European farmers of cotton and sugar and have been little changed from that time. No sane country would rely on half century or century old infrastructure in an essential industry.

Waste in water use for domestic purposes is widespread because of Government failure to maintain infrastructure.

If Egypt's supply is threatened by upstream damming you can expect conflict, but this is years/decades of.

One of the major arguments put forward by the climate change reports (including the UK Stern report) is that scarce resources will trigger conflict and the large scale movements of populations.

I have not read that the brothers have made any water initiatives,
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Re: River Nile

Post by Chocolate Eclair »

they seem to have million to support the President Carrie, so that statement does not make sense, read other posts on the Forum!!
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Re: River Nile

Post by Chocolate Eclair »

they seem to have million to support the President Carrie, so that statement does not make sense, read other posts on the Forum!! Alistaire, have you been to the high dam recently, they are normally working on only 2 of the turbines, so again they have enough water, if they open them all, they may generate enough Electricity, to prevent cuts in those that get their Electricity supplied by the dam, Bring in Guy Gibson is what I say :lol: :lol:
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Re: River Nile

Post by Chocolate Eclair »

I am not too certain when I say this, but isn't the Dam going across the White/Blue Nile only, if so there is water flowing down the other tributary, White/Blue Nile, so there will always be water flowing. Personally I think this is a mountain from a mole hill, unless someone knows different??

I appreciate a lot of waters come from the Ethiopian Mountains, but there is a lot of flood plain water from the rainy season on the plains that reach the Nile.

One of Egypt's biggest problem is thinking ahead, and maintaining what they have got now... If you keep thinking of tomorrow next week will raise its head and give you a slap...
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Re: River Nile

Post by Bearded Brian »

Approx 90% of the Nile water comes from Ethiopia with 59% coming from the blue nile (the other 31% comes from other rivers in Ethiopia but these are not constant supplies) - the white nile only supplies 10%.
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Re: River Nile

Post by Chocolate Eclair »

Well there you go, I know nothing about river flow, but at least we will get 10% and with Austerity measures in place should be ok! I suppose Egypt and Sudan can get together, Dam the Nile on the border with Ethiopia and flood the place
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