Nile, the longest River in the world, has played an extremely important role in Egypt’s civilization, development and prosperity. It provided ancient Egyptians with food, transportation and building materials. The River flows through many different African countries including Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Burundi.
Another important thing it provided to the Egyptians was fertile soil. Most area of Egypt is desert, but along the Nile River the soil is rich and good for growing crops. Farmers in Egypt and Sudan have been cultivating all types of crops throughout the year.
Egypt has also used the Nile River for generating hydro-electric power; and irrigation. The construction of the 111 meters high Aswan Dam was completed in 1970 with a cost of about one billion USD, which has been yields significant economic benefits to Egypt.
Whereas, Ethiopia, a country contributing more than 85 percent of the Nile Waters, was not beneficiary from it for a number of decades. It had never used its natural resources effectively due to financial constraints.
In fact, it was hard to Ethiopians to finance such huge projects in those old days as they were engaged in various civil wars obstructing the people to move freely from one place to another looking for their daily bread. On the other hand, there was a strong influence of the downstream countries mainly Egypt for development support from developed countries. In this regard, the international community had committed injustice that no development partner was willing to sponsor any development projects on the Nile River.
Available historical documents witnessed that some Egyptian leaders were exerting unreserved efforts in negotiating with donor countries to restrain their development donation to projects on the Nile River, which was successful for years.
The Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam (EGRD) is one among many other projects that Ethiopians have been constructing with the hope of the projects political and economic significance in poverty alleviation. Ethiopia's effort to use the Nile River for various development projects had suspended for many years.
As mentioned above, despite its 85 percent water contribution to the Nile Waters, Ethiopia remained being non-beneficiary. On the contrary, the downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, have been utilizing the Nile Water for various developments. One may ask what is so special for Ethiopia to determine to use its share of the Nile Waters. It is obvious that the country’s entire situation has altogether changed in the past twenty five years. The efforts exerted by the people and government of Ethiopia to alleviate poverty and ensure sustainable economic development have been bearing fruits. As a result, Ethiopia is now capable of financing huge projects including the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam.
However, it faced some challenges as it began constructing the EGRD. Despite all the challenges, the government and people of Ethiopia have been facing, they have kept the momentum of their participation and contribution to help the completion of the Dam. As a result, more than 70 percent of its construction has already completed so far and the building of the Dam has been undergoing in accordance to its schedule.
The relations between Ethiopia and Egypt, however, filled the people with hope at a time and despair at another time. It is hard to predict what will happen as there is inconsistency especially from Egypt’s side. There are some paradoxical issues in this regard.
In a diplomatic sense, everything seems moving well. Egyptian officials have expressed Ethiopia’s rights to use its natural resource for its development. But they emphasized that although Ethiopia has the right to develop; Egypt wants its lion share of the Nile Waters.
On the contrary of government to government diplomatic relations and official releases, there are some media that have been disseminating contents contrary to formal releases of the two governments. These coverage could violate the very essence of the agreements the three countries have made.
The coverage of Al Isma Televison could be a typical example. In her live interview with this Television, the Congo and Nile Rivers Coordinator Dr. Nancy emphasized that it has been working hard in supporting anti-peace groups who promised Egypt to jeopardize the construction of the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam. According to the televised interview of the coordinator, Egyptian intelligence has been working in collaboration with the Oromo opposition groups to obstruct the ongoing construction of the Dam.
Dr. Nancy said, “We met this week with Oromo opposition members. We are helping them to strengthen their protest as they promised us to sign an agreement that gives the lion share of the Nile waters to Egypt”.
According to Dr. Nancy, the anti-peace groups exerting efforts to destabilize Ethiopia in general and the Oromiya Region in particular. They also disagreed with the construction of the Dam. She added, “Every Egyptian should support these protests. Nowadays, not only the roads to the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam but also the schools and universities have already closed”. This distracted information is in fact fabricated. The Dam is under construction as per its schedule and no roads to the EGRD has blocked.
Despite such nasty intentions of some media in Egypt, Ethiopia has strengthened its efforts to bring the three countries together for a continued win-win discussion on the utilization of the Nile Waters in general and that of the EGRD in particular.
In fact, nix could deter this project as it is owned by the Ethiopian people. Rather everyone in every walk of life is desirous to the finalization of the construction of the Dam within its scheduled period.
This motivation, participation and consensus among the people of Ethiopia should be maintained and further strengthened as the people have determined to further strengthen their devotion to alter the country’s history of poverty through ensuring sustainable economic growth.
The people also believed that the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam not only symbolizes the strong solidarity among all Ethiopians but also plays a significant role in economic integration among the Nile Basin countries.
The three countries: Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia should learn from the experiences of other countries in the world with similar cases. Under the invitation of World Bank, the ministers of the three countries have visited and learnt the experiences that many states have been applying in utilizing the river.
According to recent reports, the three countries had taken the experience from the Colorado River in the United States.
The Colorado River is considered the main river located in the southwest of the United States and the Northwest of Mexico. It’s 1,450 miles long and is 637 sqm, passing through seven states in the USA and two Mexican cities.
Such experience sharing could help these countries to come to terms for a win-win solution. Ethiopia has made vivid from the very beginning that the construction of the EGRD will never inflict any harm on the downstream countries.
Besides, Ethiopia mentioned at various times the Dam will only generate electricity in Ethiopia and continue to flow down ward to Sudan and Egypt. This will not ease the flood that these countries were facing every rainy season but also let the two countries to get constant amount of water throughout the year.
Therefore, no matter what some Egyptian media and some individuals have propagated on the negative impact of the EGRD to downstream countries, Ethiopia will continue to discuss with Egypt and Sudan not only to vividly indicate the insignificant impact of the Dam but also to show its economic benefits to the three countries.