Friday, November 11, 2011

Ethiopia invites Egypt and Sudan to discuss Nile dam - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan

November 11, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) - Ethiopia has officially invited Egypt and Sudan for talks over a controversial dam project the horn of Africa country intends to build on the Blue Nile river.

JPEG - 16.4 kb
The Nile Rivers (Wikimedia Commons)

The invitation on Tuesday comes few weeks after Sudan has agreed to join Ethiopia and Egypt for the establishment of a tripartite technical committee that will assess to concerns raised from down stream countries that construction of the massive dam project will reduce water flow.

The ministers responsible for water management in Egypt and Sudan have been invited to Addis Ababa this month for further consultation on ways of jointly fostering future cooperation based on common interest.

According to the Egypt State Information Service the joint meeting “aims to discuss ways of overcoming the crisis between the Nile Basin countries and to restore dialogue and negotiations on points of contention in the Framework the agreement of countries around the Nile”.

The tripartite technical committee comprises of experts drawn from the three countries as well as international experts.

The Addis Ababa meeting is expected to arrange and decide how and when the joint technical committee begins its research over the impacts of Ethiopia Grand Millennium Dam.

Ethiopia says it has the right to execute development projects on the Blue Nile and further argues that construction of the dam will benefit Egypt and Sudan, who under a colonial treaty have control over most of the Nile’s water resources and are able to veto the execution of dam and irrigation projects in upstream countries.

Ethiopian experts say construction of the dam will benefit Sudan and Egypt as it will regulate the flow of water, thus reducing the situation that threatens their dams and controls possible flood risks.

The 4.8 billion dollar project was officially launched on April, 2011 and upon completion Ethiopia has plans to export electricity to Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, South Sudan and other countries in the region. The country has recently begun exporting power to neighboring Djibouti.

South Sudan seeks membership of Nile Basin Initiative

In September the newly independent Republic of South Sudan announced it was seeking full membership of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) two months after it became independent on 9 July.

The acting minister of Information, Madut Biar Yel, said South Sudan had already been enjoying an observer status in the organisation as a semi-autonomous region before independence, under the umbrella of the then national government in Khartoum.

NBI is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to equitable and sustainable management and development of the shared water resources of the Nile Basin. Its member states include Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda with Eritrea also as an observer.

It was established on February 22, 1999 in Dar es Salaam, by ministers responsible for water affairs of each of the nine member states. Its objectives include developing the Nile Basin’s water resources in a sustainable and equitable way to ensure prosperity, security, and peace for all its peoples.

(ST)

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Water needs desperate in Ethiopia

Ethiopia (MNN) ― Famine continues in the Horn of Africa. While food is important, so is water -- since that's what caused the famine in the first place. This situation is desperate.

Executive Director of Lifewater International Joe Harbison is in Ethiopia. "For three years in a row their rainy season has failed. They have no water. And those rains have only recently come back."

According to Harbison, water is their expertise. "Lifewater is pretty much focused on water. We're looking at wash water, sanitation, and hygiene. And we find that we're pretty much a perfect fit for our partner here because of the situation of water. They either have too much or too little, it seems."

Lifewater is working through Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus Development and Social Service Commission. Harbison says, "We're finding that water actually gives us a tremendous avenue of entry point into communities that would otherwise never have access to the Gospel."

According to Harbison, Lifewater sends teams to work through local partners to begin the training process. "We actually have everyday people from around North America who come and are trained by us; they actually come overseas and train trainers to do that and multiply that gift into hundreds of communities. That way we have a multiplying effect."

They also teach good health through good water sanitation and hygiene practices.

Lifewater also installs wells. It costs about $3,000 to put a good well in an area.

While it has rained in recent days, Harbison says that doesn't instantly bring back their livestock. "It still takes months for a calf to be born and to be producing milk and for there to be food for the family, so this isn't an instant recovery."

In the meantime, Harbison is asking you to pray for their work in and around Ethiopia.

If you'd like to help Lifew

Monday, November 7, 2011

Ethiopian Melese Zenawie plays to delays Nile treaty until Egypt's election to over come his own short of financial asset and expertise

Ethiopian Melese plays  to agree in  delaying  the  ratification of a treaty that strips Egypt of rights to survive  depending on the Nile water  her only  source of  sweet  waters until it has elected a new government.  the truth of the matter is that the Ethiopian Dictator is  short of financial  asset and expertise that delays  not for Egypt's sake at any cost .    Egypt has been at odds with upriver nations over changes to colonial-era treaties that gave it veto power over dam projects. Six Nile basin countries, including Ethiopia, have now signed the deal, effectively stripping Egypt of its veto.Egypt, threatened by rising temperatures and a growing population, is almost entirely dependent on the Nile for its water and has been nervously watching hydropower dam projects take shape in upriver nations.An Egyptian team of 48 politicians and activists visited Addis Ababa this week as part of a charm offensive to try to push for a compromise. The visit was coordinated with Egypt's Foreign Ministry. A delegation visited Uganda last month."They met the prime minister on Monday and requested that Egypt be given time until it sets up a new government," Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told Reuters.




"The prime minister has agreed to their requests and also offered to allow a team of Ethiopian, Sudanese and Egyptian experts, as well as international scientists, to see the benefits of the new dam," he said.

Egyptians are expected to vote for a new leader in December after popular protests toppled Hosni Mubarak in February.

Ethiopian dictator announced last month it was building a $4.78-billion death dam along its share of the river and that it had not informed Egypt about the project.

"The Ethiopian premier comments are very positive and reflect the new spirit Egyptian ties to Nile basin countries are now witnessing," said  the lolled Egyptian Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Hussein el-Atfi trusting the words of worst than Mubarak dictator Melees Zenawie who is trying to dominate the region though mega death dams.

"Egypt is keen to not oppose any project that would be in the interests of Ethiopia and the rest of the Nile basin countries, as long as it does not hurt Egypt's own water interests."

Since Mubarak's fall, the military-backed interim government has not openly criticized the new treaty, instead focusing on diplomatic ties in the search for a compromise has given Melese Zenawie unprecedented power showing the Egyptian weakness in the time of democratic revolutionary transition.

Some members of the Egyptian team in Addis Ababa, which included three presidential candidates and a former diplomat, blamed Mubarak's foreign policy for the Nile problems, saying he had neglected relations with other African states, forgetting the positive role played by the Egyptian deadly dictator in stopping Zenawie from building death dams on the Nile which will eventually dry out...

The newly  cheated Egyptian presidential candidate just  playing for local poultices of election lost the water power to Melees by declaring  that  "The (new Nile treaty) was signed in the absence of Egypt ... It's a result of bad foreign policy under Mubarak's regime," Hamdeen Sabahy, an e, said.

Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry spokesman said both countries recognized there had been a thaw in relations and said Egypt's interim prime minister would visit Addis Ababa in May. Egypt's foreign minister said the visit would take place next week.

Under a 1929 pact, Egypt is entitled to 55.5 billion cubic meters a year of the Nile's flow of around 84 billion cubic meters, but now with Melees Zenawie treaty not only Egypt will losses its share but also Ethiopia will lose the Nile by deadly dams drying it out .

At all cost this will not be long before the true faces of the deadly Ethiopian Dictator exposed by internal revolution like that of Hosni Mubarak, Kaddafi and Ben Ali. It is better for Egypt to stand firm in her position and keep its promises with the Ethiopian people not of a worst dictator Melees Zenawie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5T38WjDskI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WxzVmV_eIg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqsYlPyqgiY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C08bR0bVnBQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhA95OjhxJM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl3aVuRzgPY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBvOLu33Ftw&feature=related

Enhanced by Zemanta