CAIRO: The Nile basin, which supplies Egypt with all of its water, has become a heavily discussed topic in Egypt's upcoming elections, according to the Arab Water Council's president Mahmoud Abu-Zeid. The Nile runs through 11 countries and has two sources which meet in Sudan. “Some of the political parties are talking about the Nile agreement,” said Abu-Zeid. “All of them are talking about water security, which means no disturbance of the historic rights and that countries should not implement projects which would affect our uses of the Nile in Egypt.” Recently, countries such as Sudan and Ethiopia have begun construction of dams alng their sections of the Nile, a move which has placed Egyptian on edge. “We saw that the new dam Ethiopia has started to build might affect the historic rights of Egypt,” said Abu-Zeid. Ethiopia's hydro-electric dam has been estimated to cost five billion dollars and construction began several months back. The Ethiopian dam, known as the Renaissance Dam, will not be used to irrigate farms according to Ethiopian officials. Even so, Egypt remains concerned that their share of the Nile will now be under threat. “What we have been assured is that this dam is for hydro-electric and that it has no irrigation schemes in it,” said Abu-Zeid. “On the other hand, we have heard about irrigation schemes in Ethiopia and we're not sure if any of them are in the Nile Basin.” In the 1950's, the Egyptian, Sudanese and Ethiopian population figures stood at 22, 9 and 18 million respectively. Now the figures stand much higher; 82 million Egyptians, 45 million Sudanese and 85 million Ethiopians. This massive increase in population has increased the demand from the Nile across the board. According to a research professor and director of the Desert Development Center at the American University in Cairo, Richard Tutwiler, population numbers have driven much of the politics in the Nile Basin. “Water doesn't increase, but the population does,” he said. The average annual flow of water in to the lake Nasser is 85 billion cubic metres. Egypt consumes 55.5 billion cubic meters of this reservoir, while Sudan normally consumes 18.5. The remaining 10 billion cubic metres evaporates on the way to or inside Lake Nasser. Changes in population numbers, economic development and climate change have a tremendous effect on the relationships between all the nations that share in the Nile water supply. Ethiopia's Blue Nile provides an estimated 85% of the water supplied to Lake Nasser, and has in the past been largely ignored by Egypt and Sudan's Nile-based development projects. “There is enough water for everybody,” said Abu-Zeid. “The Nile is so big that everybody can get his share. We should not worry about the availability of resources. We should worry about how to develop joint programs for the benefit of everybody.” BM
