Ever since construction began a decade ago, there’s been serious contention between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a huge project straddling the Blue Nile in Ethiopia.
For Ethiopia, the project is meant to offer a solution to its severe power problem, providing electricity access for an estimated 65 million Ethiopians. Ethiopia also says its neighbours will benefit from cheap energy exports.
Egypt relies on the Blue Nile for freshwater, and maintains that the dam represents an existential threat.
For its part, Sudan has had to balance its own concerns about water supply with the dam’s promise of cheap power and flood control. Recently it appears that Sudan has firmed up on its opposition to the Dam.
For my doctoral thesis, I am studying the geopolitical realities on the governance of the Nile’s resources. This isn’t the first time that relations in the region have been strained by dam politics – its history is a long one and the tensions felt today are rooted in the imperial past.
The beginning
It started with the occupation of Egypt by Britain in 1882. Egypt became independent in 1922, though British influence remained strong for another three decades until the last British troops left in 1956.
Great Britain ’s textile industries depended on Egyptian cotton, which relied on irrigation using the River Nile’s water. To conserve water during the rainy seasons for dry seasons, British hydrologists developed a plan called the Century Storage Scheme.
The plan envisaged the regulation of the Nile waters along different seasons and years (drought and flood) by building several dams and reservoirs in Ethiopia and other upstream countries. The plan ruled out storing the Nile waters in downstream countries, mainly because of immense water losses that could happen due to evaporation.
But the plan had one major flaw. It didn’t consider the interests of nine upstream countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Its aim was to safeguard Great Britain’s interests.
Aswan High Dam
The biggest project on the Nile was initiated by Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt’s prime minister between 1954-56 and then president until 1970. Nasser wanted to build a dam which would end Egypt’s dependency on upstream countries by storing the Nile waters in Egypt. It would also end flooding and bring more electricity to Egyptians.
Nasser decided to build the dam at Aswan, creating a big reservoir in the northern border between Sudan and Egypt. The reservoir, called Lake Nasser, stretches about 125 miles from Egypt into Sudan where it is called Lake Nubia.
The Aswan High Dam was initially described by British hydrologists as “not worthy of serious consideration” and “full of mad ideas for the Nile.” This was because it was the antithesis of the Century Storage Scheme and the basin-wide approach that dominated water management on the Nile under the British.
Sudan gained its independence in 1956. The new government opposed the colonial treaties, which Great Britain signed with Egypt on behalf Sudan and favoured Egypt.
It also opposed the construction of the Aswan High Dam because of the high social, economic and environmental costs. These, according to an American historian of East Africa and Nile expert Professor Robert Collin, included the forced relocation of tens of thousands of Sudanese Nubians, the destruction of historical cities, the threat of increased in soil salinity and water-logging, and increase seismic activity from the weight of the reservoir on fault lines.
Sudan instead favoured the Century Storage Scheme which involved a series of smaller dams in Uganda and Ethiopia, together with the Jonglei Canal. The canal was meant to divert the flow of the White Nile, bypassing the vast swamps of the Sudd, in South Sudan, where water is lost to evaporation. The construction of the Jonglei Canal started in 1978 but was suspended in 1983.
As part of the Century Storage Scheme, in 1956 Sudan went ahead with plans to construct the Roseires Dam on the Blue Nile and expand the country’s Gezira irrigation scheme.
To implement their respective projects, both Egypt and Sudan tried to get funds from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, later to become the World Bank. However, since the Roseires Dam would alter the flow of the Nile, and the Aswan High Dam would have significant socio-economic impacts on Sudan, the bank required the two countries reach an agreement to get the funds.
This proved impossible. The Sudanese parliament refused to consent to the construction of the Aswan High Dam while Egypt was committed to start the construction work.
A dramatic turn of events in 1958 changed the course of history.
General Ibrahim Abboud deposed the Sudanese government and Abboud signed the 1959 Nile Waters Treaty with Egypt and consented to the construction of the Aswan High Dam.
Egypt completed the construction of Aswan High Dam in 1971. The dam continued to operate in favour of Egypt, providing water for irrigation and generating a huge amount of electricity.
The Grand Renaissance Dam
Aswan High Dam and the 1959 Nile Waters Treaty, which totally disregarded the interest of upstream countries, also frustrated Ethiopia. The dam, which evaporates 10-15 BCM of waters annually, would also foreclose Ethiopia’s future use of the Nile.
In 1959 Ethiopia commissioned a survey on the Blue Nile for irrigation and hydropower. The survey, carried out by the US Bureau of Reclamation, issued its final report in 1964 which proposed various projects including a “border dam,” which later became the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Ethiopia was not immediately able to implement the project due to a lack of finance. Egypt also used extensive diplomatic connections and the colonial-era 1929 and 1959 agreements to prevent the construction of any major infrastructure projects on the tributaries of the Nile.
Finally, after decades of political stability and economic growth, Ethiopia managed to raise a significant portion of money for the dam’s construction from people locally and from its diaspora. The construction of the dam eventually began in 2011.
Basin-wide cooperation
The dam now joins a number of existing dams, including the Aswan High Dam and the Roseires Dam. This makes a basin-wide cooperation and management imperative.
Given the ever increasing importance of coordinated management and operation downstream and upstream dams due to climate change, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt should manage all dams through the Nile Basin Commission – an organisation envisaged in the Cooperative Framework Agreement.
The Agreement, which was negotiated for a more than a decade by all riparian states to prepare a basin-wide framework to regulate the inter-state use and management of the Nile River, is accepted by all states except Egypt and Sudan. Egypt and Sudan should, therefore, accede into it.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
