There are many oral literatures which appreciate and wonder the River Nile since time immemorial both in the upper and lower stream countries. More than 10 thousand Poems which describe its enormity and length have also been written in multiple of languages.
The Greek historian Herodotus who lived earlier to the birth of Christ said that “Egypt is a gift of Nile” which mean River Nile is the source of the existence of Egypt. The same is true that Ethiopia is the source of Nile and contributes about 86 percent of water volume for the river. Beginning from the medieval time, Nile had determined the political relation between Ethiopia and Egypt and when political tension occurred, Ethiopian rulers used to threat Egypt verbally to block the flow of the water.
Similarly, Egypt used to vow not to send Coptic pops to Ethiopian Orthodox Church to counter the threat, because at that time, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church patriarchs had been assigned by the Egyptian Coptic Church. Such verbal war was common during the era of king Dawit in the fourteenth century. It is proved that the Nile basin is the genesis of human civilization and till now huge population in both Sudan and Egypt reside in the river basin and water harvesting and irrigation were practiced for long through the traditional technology which relied on human and animal labor.
Though Ethiopia is the source of the Nile, no evidence is recorded regarding the practice of irrigation in the Nile Basin. But as an ancient country, agriculture has a long history in Ethiopia and the availability of sufficient rain water might made farmers to be reluctant in practicing irrigation and until the modern time, no Ethiopian ruler endeavor for the fully utilization of the Nile water be it for irrigation or hydro power generation.
The absence of technology, finance, the level of economic development inhibited Ethiopian rulers to aspire for water exploitation. The ruggedness of the Nile gorge also made practicing irrigation very difficult and expensive. Furthermore, though the water originates from Ethiopia, it serves more cultivable surface of land in the Sudan and Egypt than in Ethiopia.
On the part of Egypt, after the brief occupation of Napoleon from 1798 to 1801 Mohamed Ali Pasha strived for the establishment of strong central government and for water harvesting and the development of irrigation farm and dams in the vast areas of the river basin. Later with his strong army invaded the territory up to the boarders of Ethiopia and Uganda.
In the succeeding decades, the coming to power of the members of his dynasty, Seid Pasha, Kehdive Ismael and the occupation of Egypt by Britain from 1882 to 1921 made the situation to be radically changed. Seid Pasha who ruled Egypt from 1854 to 1863 permitted the French Engineer to build Suez Canal at the later decade of 19th century which connects Red Sea with Europe, India and Far East. This phase further enhanced the magnitude of the value of trade and shortened the long distance trade from Europe to Asia through Atlantic Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
This new development can be said as eye opener situation for European powers to exert their influence in the region. The establishment of the Suez Canal enabled Egypt to earn huge revenue from the passing ships which in turn helped to modernize its military institutions and hard wares. In addition, it enabled Egypt to maximize its political leverage to influence the region and to bypass its neighboring countries economically and technologically.
The economic growth further made the Egyptian rulers to be more ambitious not only to exploit the water resources but also to control the water source by military means. Then Kehdive Ismael to realize his grandfather’s dream with the help of the Turkish controlled Massawa and Swakin by 1865 and later occupied northern Somalia up to Harar and made war of intrusive with Ethiopia but was successively defeated by the Ethiopian King emperor Johannes II at the battle of Gura and Gundet. Egyptians intruders were also curtailed and defeated by the Afar’s in the Afar plains.
After the second half of the 19th century onwards, Egyptians with the support of the colonial powers to maximize their water grid devoted their substantial military and political capacity regardless of the interest of the upper riparian countries. Of course, during the colonial era from the last decades of the 19th century up to the second half of the 20th century except Ethiopia, all the upper riparian countries were under the yolk of colonialism and let alone about Nile, they had no right to assert their future. Hence, the then colonial power in the horn of Africa Great Britain with its African allies and colonial rivals many times could impose their interest regardless of the upper riparian countries’ economic aspiration. The 1902 and the 1929 agreement between Britain, Egypt and Sudan can be mentioned as the case in point.
In the 1930s, when fascist Italy prepared to invade Ethiopia, the neighboring colonial powers Britain and France without considering the sovereignty of Ethiopia, endorsed the occupation but stipulated Italy not to construct dam on River Nile and Lake Tana. In the Ethiopian side, during the reign of emperor Haile Silasie I, studies for the development of Nile basin had been conducted with the support of American companies which paved the way for the construction of about 32 small hydropower dams but because of various reasons it failed to be practical and Until the dawn fall of the Derg regime in 1991, the relation between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan was at the logger head and the upper Nile countries effort to utilize the water source for development was negligible.
There was no mutual trust and covert activities were common and due to its inherent problem, Ethiopia did not get sufficient time and finance for the development of its water resources. Currently, however, the ongoing construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) could defuse the past mistrust between the upper and dawn riparian countries and the continued negotiations also expected to bring trust among the riparian countries.
The lower riparian countries seem to recognize the rights of the upper riparian countries to utilize their water resources. Up on the completion, the GERD will generate more than 6 thousand Mega Watt hydro power and the exportation of electric power to the neighboring countries may lay fertile ground for regional economic integration. By now, Egypt has 3 million hectares irrigated farm land which consumes 60 billion cubic meter of water annually while Sudan developed 2 million hectares which consume 16 billion cubic meters of water. Thus, cognizant to the value of the exploitation of water sources for multifaceted economic development, all Ethiopians should stand together for the speedy completion of the GEERD.
BY ABEBE WOLDE GIORGIS
The Ethiopian Herald may 11/2021
