When the young Harvard graduate Charles Sutton came to Ethiopia during the Imperial régime in the 60s as the member of Peace Corps to Ethiopia, his mission was to volunteer as an English teacher. However, following his fall in love with the traditional musical instrument, Masinko, he eventually became the “god father” of the traditional music band, Orchestra Ethiopia. When he took the band on a US tour to promote the indigenous Ethiopian music, he had changed the name of the band to The Blue Nile Group.
The reason why Charles made the name change might stem from the thinking held by many that the word “Blue Nile” though just a name of an Ethiopian river it has more attention grabbing power in the international media than Ethiopia itself. Indeed, Blue Nile is not just a river. It is one of the greatest natural resources Ethiopians have that could energize their struggle to unchain themselves of the shackles of poverty. At the same time it is a sensitive political agenda in a continental scale involving at least the three nations-the children of the Blue Nile, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.
The big question in the Nile politics is whether each child of the Nile has equal right of enjoying the bounty of the river. After centuries of slumber, Ethiopians are now on the verge of achieving a fair share of the bounty of the Nile with the construction of the largest dam in Africa, GERD with a total installed power of 6,450 MW.
The construction of the dam has reportedly achieved 67 % completion and two of its turbines are expected to commence generating power next year. Abiy’s administration has already asserted that finalizing the dam is a key priority and planed to finalize GERD project in 2023.
However, Ethiopia’s effort to get its fair share of the benefit of the Nile has been a cause for concern for Egypt which obviously acts like it is the primary owner of the Blue Nile and that others could only use the river only after it satisfies its needs.
The long stalled tripartite negotiations on technical operations of GERD, especially on the water filling process, have taken place early last week in Cairo. The outcome this round of meeting was undesirable, to say the least. For someone with little knowledge of African geography who might have read the proposal tabled by the Egyptian on the last meeting might wonder whether Blue Nile flows from Egypt to Ethiopia, not the other way round. The Egyptians’ latest proposal totally disregards Ethiopia’s right as equal beneficiary of the Blue Nile, let alone its being as the source of Blue Nile.
According to report by the Amharic desk of Deutsche Welle, the Egyptians in their latest proposal have demanded among others: the filling of the GERD to be conducted within seven years period of time, the height of their dam, High Aswan Dam, HAM, be maintained at 165 metres above sea level. GERD need to release 40 BCM of water each year and that Egyptian experts need to have presence at GERD.
Addis Standard has quoted a classified document discussing Ethiopia’s position on the proposal made by the Egyptians as saying the request by Egypt is not practical. When all the elements of the Egyptian proposal are considered in aggregate, the cumulative effect will result in: a) Prolong the filing of GERD indefinitely; b) GERD will primarily be there to compensate for Egyptian water deficit, serving as second backup reservoir to HAD; c) GERD will not deliver its economic return to Ethiopia; d) The proposed Permanent coordination Mechanism infringes on Ethiopia’s sovereignty; e) Ethiopia will forfeit its rights to equitable and reasonable utilization of the Blue Nile water resources.
Fana Broadcasting Corporate, FBC has quoted the Ethiopian Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy, Dr Engineer Seleshi Bekele, who briefed local media on the result of the latest tripartite meeting, as saying Ethiopia rejected the [Egyptian] proposal because it breached the agreement signed between the three countries on fair and reasonable utilization of the waters of the Nile River, and it pushes the country into unnecessary and harmful obligations.
Reuters has reported that Egypt fear that the dam will restrict Nile River flows, its economic lifeblood, but Ethiopia argues GERD will not harm Egypt’s interest, and in November, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said he wanted to preserve Egypt’s Nile River rights.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition September 22/2019
BY SOLOMON WASSIHUN
