{"id":2710,"date":"2019-05-27T07:48:56","date_gmt":"2019-05-27T07:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=2710"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:19","slug":"climate-change-and-growing-population-exerting-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/05\/27\/climate-change-and-growing-population-exerting-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Change and Growing Population Exerting Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Story by East Africa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1985, then United Nations secretary general\nBoutros Boutros-Ghali reminded the world that the next war in the Middle East\nwould be fought over water, not politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2003, he tweaked this warning, saying in\nthis century, water will be more important than oil. That statement has\novertime been interpolated to the effect that the Third World War will be\nfought over water as climate change, growing populations and migration exert\nmore pressure on water resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being from Egypt, the late Boutros-Ghali might\nas well have been talking about the rising tensions then over the use of the\nNile waters, estimated to contribute 90 per cent of Egypt\u2019s fresh water supply\nand 95 per cent of its livelihoods, pitting his native country against Sudan\nand Ethiopia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So intense were the disputes surrounding the developments\nalong the Nile that when Ethiopia announced in 2011 that it was building a\n6,430 Megawatt dam, the Grand Renaissance, on the Blue Nile, Egypt\u2019s first\nreaction was to threaten war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, Egypt\u2019s then-president, Mohamed Morsi\nequated the Nile waters to the life fluid, warning that diminishing the flow by\none drop would mean \u201cour blood is the alternative.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six years later, the war drums from in Ethiopia\nand Egypt have gone quiet and the $4 billion Grand Renaissance Dam is 70 per\ncent complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dispute now is over how long it should take\nto be filled up, with Egypt asking for a maximum of 15 years in order to avoid\ndrastically low levels of water flowing downstream. Ethiopia has suggested\nthree years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt\u2019s fears arise from three factors. One, of\nthe world\u2019s longest rivers, the Nile has the weakest flow (84 cubic kilometers)\ncompared with 5,518 cubic km for the Amazon and 1,250 cubic kms for the Congo\nRiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two, with most of its water dependent on the\nEthiopian highlands and the river passing through a desert, high evaporation\nrates make its level quite variable, sometimes by as much as eight metres in\nSudan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three, Egypt is projected to become water\nscarce in six years with water consumption of 87 cubic km per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the credit in calming the tension over\nthe Nile waters goes to Ethiopia\u2019s new Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy who was\nelected last year and quickly signed a three-way agreement with Egypt and Sudan\nto hold talks every six months to discuss reasonable timelines for the filling\nup of the Renaissance Dam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unheralded behind-the-scenes work, however,\nhas been done under the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), which with the World\nBank\u2019s support, has established a structured way of co-operation among\ncountries in the sustainable use of trans-boundary water resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initiative brings together 10 Nile Basin\ncountries \u2014 Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan,\nSudan, Tanzania, and Uganda (Eritrea participates as an observer) \u2014 with its\nprogrammes being adopted as national policies by members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough research we have given more reliable\ninformation on the benefits of co-operation and the potential impact of\nprojects. This has helped create trust and minimized grounds for conflict,\u201d\nsaid William Rex, the programme manager of the World Bank\u2019s Cooperation in\nInternational Waters in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The programme assists riparian governments in\nsub-Saharan Africa to address constraints to sustainable joint management and\ndevelopment of water resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBI is funded through the Nile Basin Trust Fund\nwhose seed capital\u2014$140 million\u2014was committed by donors in 2001 to facilitate\nco-operation on Nile matters including institutions, research and investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NBI model is being replicated in finding\nlasting solutions to the sustainable sharing of water along the Zambezi, Niger,\nOkavango, Senegal and Volta rivers besides working with the Inter Governmental\nAuthority on Development (Igad) and the South African Development Community on\nthe framework for sharing of ground water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur focus through sharing of information, data\nand research, especially on flood prediction, is on how to increase the pie by\nlooking at the services with the maximum impact for all riparian countries\nrather than what volume each country gets as was the case with the\ncontroversial agreements,\u201d Mr Rex said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three agreements have overtime, come to define\nhow the Nile Waters are shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agreements<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colonial agreements made by Britain in 1902 and\n1929, and a bilateral treaty between Egypt and Sudan in 1959 gave Cairo the\nbulk of the Nile waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latter gave Egypt three quarters of the\nwaters (55.5 billion cubic meters) against a quarter for Sudan or 18.5 billion\ncubic meters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreements, especially the colonial ones,\nare contested mostly in East Africa where independent governments say they\nshould not be bound by them. The 1959 agreement is contested by Ethiopia,\nwhich, despite supplying 85 per cent of the Nile waters, was not a party to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already, NBI is fronting the Rusumo Falls\nHydroelectric Dam which is shared between Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania as an\nexample of what can be achieved with co-operation on use of trans-boundary\nresources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 80 Megawatts generated from the dam will be\nshared equally between the three countries despite its feeder, River Kagera,\nnot passing through Burundi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conceived a decade ago, the $469 million\nproject is funded by the World Bank ($340 million towards generation\ninfrastructure) and the Africa Development Bank ($128.6 million for the\ntransmission lines).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be run by the Rusumo Power Company, a\njoint venture between the three governments when it is completed in 2020. It\nalso has a $711,000 livelihood restoration programme where 161 households\naffected by the project will be supported to start sustainable agriculture,\nlivestock keeping and off-farm businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also $15 million to be shared equally\nbetween communities in the three countries for general development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rusumo is one of $2 billion in investments\nenabled through NBI. Others are the now operational 100 Megawatt\ninterconnection that has enabled power from Ethiopia to be sold to Sudan\nbenefiting 1.4 million households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another, the $403 million regional\ninterconnection to power electricity trade between Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya,\nUganda and Rwanda is ongoing with construction of 1,500 kilometres of\ntransmission lines and base stations underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are expected to\njointly implement the Eastern Nile Watershed Management Programme which aims to\nincrease soil water retention through appropriate farming methods, control of\nerosion through terracing and afforestation and water harvesting by households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBI is now however caught up in a dispute\nbetween Kenya and Tanzania over construction of two dams across the Mara River,\nthe ecosystem that feeds the wildebeest migration, one of the Seven Wonders of\nthe New World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read original article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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