
BY LAKACHEW ATINAFU
Ethiopia is a self-made country that never had interest of offending the others, but advocates the principle of mutualism and respect especially the utilization of natural resources. As it is enshrined in international law every country has a right to construct projects over own natural resources as such a project does not pose any threat on the other party.
So long, the other party waged tough strategy to make the Horn volatile region and sustain their exclusive interest on River Abbay. Underestimation of Ethiopia by the other party has failed and they were humiliated when they tried to combat with Ethiopians at the battle of Gura and Gundet long ago.
Once an American Colonel witnessed the heroes’ combatants against the foreign aggression “boom after boom was heard every now and then the aggressors escaped the bullet only to feel the scimitar. Neither son of god nor any other spiritual power was able to rescue nations aspire to kill the land, ‘Land of Origin’.”
In the very recent time span, infant nations have tried to betray the countries millennia independent history in favor of ignorance however the leader with clairvoyant view made them to take any more yard stick. Ethiopia has traveled eras in handling matters and settling disputes with indigenous Knowledge and enormous traditions emanated from intrinsic moral principles.
The piece aims not to promote Ethiopia but to forward messages for those who tried to exploit the poor’s resource under the guise of international law and continue to sustain the chair of lords of poverty. What being is right and what being is wrong if someone demands a game of gladiator to inflate personal ego denying the naked truth and unfair possession of the blue economy.
After colonial demarcation which was weaponized to be ticking time bomb in the post-colonial era, our historical contender and its alleys are continuing to spit out in front of nature that Ethiopians are weak and they put themselves high the sky. Are we? Let history judge. Who is weak and who is strong?
It is not time to extenuate the matter and continue lamenting for a country denied of possession of port though the country is home for 100s plus million. The cardinal principle of the UN puts forward sovereign right over natural resource though Trans Boundary Rivers are set to be not to be fully arrested.
Woe to the stance of the other party and the ill conventions behind and plot and conspiracies beneath snatching away the bowl from a neighbor and trying to sustain a hook and sucker interest. Egypt and Ethiopia have something in common in history; they are origin of ancient civilization and have contributed for the current world along with other early states.
As time gone by due to the aspire to engulf the Red Sea and the Arabian peninsula ,the region of Horn grabbed the interest of the world to get access to the orient countries and of geo politics importance. Painful so much to hear from mankind pseudo democracy aspire to be rich making others weak and continuing the evil formula. Egypt and Sudan have built unilateral projects on River Nile that more than 86% of the water is originated from Ethiopian highlands.
Ethiopia has passed through darkness and temptation even though it’s a symbol for African unity and beacon for the blacks who had been on the sea of darkness. The water politics is other form of exploitation. The current stance of the Egyptian report to the UN is an insult to countries crawling to eradicate poverty taking advantage of unilateral projects.
They seemed to rein the cosmos as their predecessors sunk in sea while they were upgrading their ego for hollow bravado. The lunatic speech bellow witnessed that the globe is steered by few for the just of rapacious interest of the little. Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation said to the United Nations: Unilateral practices of the Renaissance Dam pose an existential threat to 150 million people.
The continuation of Ethiopia’s unilateral practices in the operation of its “oversized dam” poses an existential threat to 150 million citizens and could lead to the “exacerbation of irregular migration,” said Egypt’s Minister Hani Sewilam. The minister’s remarks came on Wednesday at the UN 2023 Water Conference – the first UN water conference in a generation – held in New York on 22-24 March.
First of all, the speech by the Minister is an insult for the Riparian countries and greedy interest emanated from colonial mentality. The Minister tried to use ‘oversized Dam’ forgetting oversized poverty and the demand for development along with environmental degradation, deforestation resulted from the demand for fuel. He further said that the building of the dam has been ongoing “with no consultation and without conducting adequate studies on safety or its economic, social and environmental effects on the riparian countries”.
Sewilam said that Ethiopia has unilaterally begun the GERD’s building, filling and operating process. For his unfair stance the man is advised to inquire authorities of Salini a well reputed international company inspired to build and once the Egyptian tried to negotiate with belittling Ethiopians and undermine less even not equated like the company.
Who asked Egypt when the constructed unilateral projects on River Nile? “These unilateral, non-cooperative practices violate international law, including 2015’s Declaration of Principles and are not inconsistent with 2021’s Security Council presidential statement,” the Minister said.
The above lunatic statement read the incorporation of Tributary River in the international law. Here, important might be the discrepancy between international law and international politics and sphere of diplomacy, fundamental changes of circumstances. Moreover, their continuation could pose an existential threat to 150 million citizens [of Egypt and Sudan]…and could have a disastrous effect,” he said.
The Egyptian Minister said that continuing such practices in operating an “oversized dam” during a prolonged drought might lead Egypt to lose nearly 15 per cent of its agricultural lands and “This will consequently be linked to risks of increasing social and economic tensions and exacerbating irregular migration,” Sewilam said, adding that the practices could double Egypt’s food import bill.
“This will consequently be linked to risks of increasing social and economic tensions and exacerbating irregular migration,” Sewilam said, adding that the practices could double Egypt’s food import bill. What is more the man from the land of advocating hegemony and resistant to shared benefit have never said a word about Ethiopians and seemed to have escape from humanity.
Woe to him, such absurd statement has exposed his country how it is rapacious and an agent for sustaining colonial legacies. In my opinion, the honorable Minister and the Egyptians should refrain from intellectual dependency and reconsider the issue of Abbay is a matter of Geopolitics not international law as law is altered due to fundamental changes of circumstances.
Hence, our brothers are urged to play their card well adhering for African fraternity and integrations with their Ethiopian brothers than advocating post and pre-colonial agreement on utilization of water where Ethiopia is not part of it. The world has also foresee the fate of millions of Ethiopians yet in the darkness while owning blessing and verities of resources with humble and proud people who are always to lend hand for the neediest amid precarious situations.
Ethiopia is always in the forefront for negotiation and constructive discussion to prosper together reach the helm of success and country formulating a self-looking foreign policy. One of the great instances of Ethiopia in sustaining cooperation and maintaining fraternity of the world is its dedication in participating in peace keeping missions, environmental stewardship, and green legacy.
So the above utterance by the Egyptian Minister is junky and is not necessarily expected from a senior citizen. Ethiopia is always piloting cooperation and work with integration for the well-being of the planet in either resource utilization or peace keeping. Ethiopia has always been on the vanguard of a rules-based international system as demonstrated by, for example, its position as major contributor of troops for various UN and AU peace keeping missions in various parts of the world.
As it is clearly stipulated in Article 2(7) of the Charter of the United Nation, and embedded in the legal and normative order of the African Union, the fundamental element of the international legal order is the principle of nonintervention in the internal affairs of other sovereign states. Thus, the international community need to understand the interest of Ethiopia as a sovereign state to handle internal affairs by own capacity as long as the country adheres to the afore-mentioned governing principles, norms and protocols.
The Abbay River is one of the world’s great rivers almost 6700 kilometers from its farthest sources at the headwaters of the Kagera River in Burundi and Rwanda to its Delta in Egypt. Eleven countries share the Nile River: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda and South Sudan. The Nile Basin serves as home to an estimated 300 million people within the riparian countries, while 140 million people out of them live outside the boundaries of the Nile Basin and use other water resources that include groundwater sources.
The waters of the Nile are generally utilized for irrigation, hydro-electric power generation, water supply, fishing, tourism, flood control, water transportation and the protection of public health. In particular, the economy of the entire Nile Basin almost entirely consists of agricultural activities of the co-riparian of the Nile. In the upper-basin states of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, settled agriculture is the general economic activity.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 29 MARCH 2023