| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| Ethiopia dam is 'declaration of war': Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya |
| 2013-05-31 |
| [Al Ahram] Æthiopia's Renaissance Dam and the diversion of the Blue Nile is a declaration of war on Egypt, Sheikh Abdel-Akher Hammad of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Æthiopia began diverting the course of the Blue Nile, one of the Nile River's two major tributaries, as part of its project to build a dam for electricity production. Speaking on Al-Arabiya satellite channel, Hammad claimed the move would reduce Egypt's water supply and damage national security. "If such a war is forged against us, we are ready to fight and we will embark on it with all our strength to defend our honour," asserted Hammad. Diplomatic negotiations should be the first step, he added. Hammad went on to say the crisis should have been dealt with by the Mubarak regime. The Blue Nile provides Egypt with the lion's share of its annual 55 billion cubic metres of river water. According to the state-run National Planning Institute, Egypt will need an additional 21 billion cubic metres of water per year by 2050 -- on top of its current quota of 55 billion metres -- to meet the needs of a projected population of 150 million. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #11 Easier to get more and bigger straws into a lake than a river That would mean Egypt and Ethiopia would have to come to a deal. /innocent look |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-05-31 14:47 |
| #10 Obvious solution to Egypt's water shortages is to collect output from pissed egyptians. Heheh. Combine that with energy collected from all the seething and Egypt is on it's way to being a modern, prosperous country. Except for all the bad government, I mean. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2013-05-31 13:03 |
| #9 Next would come the golf courses, and then it would be on. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2013-05-31 12:33 |
| #8 Easier to get more and bigger straws into a lake than a river. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2013-05-31 12:26 |
| #7 So, how does it reduce Egypt's water supply? There is a lot less water flowing downstream (see: Colorado River) |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-05-31 12:19 |
| #6 Rammer, dunno about that. Evaporation is proportionate to surface area exposed to the air, and there's less water exposed in a lake versus the same volume of water flowing through a river. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2013-05-31 11:01 |
| #5 Kansas and Colorado been fighting over the John Martin reservoir and the Arkansas River for 25 years. |
| Posted by: bman 2013-05-31 10:55 |
| #4 There is a potential loss of water at the reservoir due to evaporation across a larger surface area. |
| Posted by: rammer 2013-05-31 10:32 |
| #3 Obvious solution to Egypt's water shortages is to collect output from pissed egyptians. |
| Posted by: JFM 2013-05-31 08:35 |
| #2 Question; say a dam gets built. Water is gathered/held up temporarily to create some force to drive turbines (water rises in a holding reservoir). When then water has passed the turbines, where does it go? I doesn't disappear. Gravity will pull it along, probably into its old channels. I can't see them creating new river channels to preclude the water from reaching Egypt. So, how does it reduce Egypt's water supply? The water isn't consumed, and its potential energy is the same at that point in the river as it was before the dam. Plus this; if Egypt needs 21B mm more water in the future than the Blue Nile can supply, where do they plan to get it? |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2013-05-31 06:56 |
| #1 See also TOPIX > [Tigrai Online] RETIRED COMMANDER OF EGYPTIAN FORCES GENERAL ALI BILAL SAID IT IS IMPOSSIBLE [for Egypt] TO STRIKE [seriously] THE ETHIOPIAN RENAISSANCE DAM, as due to the myriad multi-state interests involved in its origional planning + contruction, includ both the US + China, etal. * Also from SAME > ETHIOPIA DIVERTS BLUE NILE FOR CONSTRUCTION OF ETHIOPIAN RENAISSANCE DAM. At least multimateral Diplomacy is still in effect as per China's Three Gorges + Mekong Region, + China-vs-India-vs-Pakistan, etc. in West-South Asia. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2013-05-31 01:16 |