Mohammed Hersi . A hotelier passionate about Tourism & Governance in Africa

Matters River Nile Ethiopia Vs Egypt & Sudan

Anytime I see a news item on River Nile it is about Egypt and how unhappy they are with the fact that Ethiopia is building a dam to use the same waters to improve the well being of it’s people. Firstly Ethiopia should be considerate but at no time should Egypt bully any other nation.

Now has Egypt & Sudan ever shown any interest to help in conservation of the water towers deep in the Ethiopian highlands? Which in turn feeds Lake Tana the true source of River Nile. It is believed that 85% of the River Nile is from the Blue Nile while the white Nile from Lake Victoria is contributing only 15%.

Has Egypt and Sudan ever shown any interest to see how to keep Lake Victoria safe and clean ?

Why does Egypt and Sudan think that the source of the nile is permanent. They must drop this entitlement mentality. Have they ever shown any care to protect and preserve the forest cover etc. I have searched everywhere I haven’t seen evidence, all I see is about some agreement signed many decades ago with a third party player who exited the scene more than half a century ago.

The fact that the river is getting more brown from it source means top soil erosion is happening big time which in turn means ground cover upstream is dwindling and automatically water volumes will drop. This is the biggest threat to River Nile not even the dam.

Even for Ethiopia they should not sit pretty . Perennial soil erosion will lead to massive siltation and before they know it half of the dam will be full of mud.

Fact is that human beings are notorious about sharing the cake provided by nature but they never talk about preserving and growing what mother nature has baked and given us. Man is a terrible consumer, he eats and destroys. Sustainability mantra only became fashionable a few years ago. Man simply upgraded from hunter gatherer mentality to mass extraction.

Look at that dam , its already brown . Look at Niagara Falls and the rivers that feed it ….its crystal clear because the forest and tree cover is intact and well managed.

Africa we are mostly good in extracting, who knows one day the river may simply stop flowing , I wonder which court Egypt will turn to or who will it threaten if that was to happen.

Imagine for once if Egypt had taken keen interest over the decades to the point that the Egyptian goverment was supporting conservation up the in the Ethiopian mountains and along the river nile riparian waters.

Imagine for once if Egyptian were visiting in their thousands every year to see the source of River Nile in Uganda and the Blue Nile in Ethiopia that sustain them downstream and they planted trees. Visiting Ethiopian highlands to check and care for the source of their livelihood would have even made them bond.

Imagine for once if every year Egypt was engaging all the countries that contribute to the well being of River Nile in conservation including my country Kenya . We see Europeans showing more interest of conserving myriad of rivers in Africa but where is Egypt? Africa’s superpower.

Let humans have some respect for mother nature .

It’s high time Egypt and Sudan were made to take responsibility for caring for the source of the Nile and the entire ecosystem. They cannot sit pretty downstream busy farming ( we buy oranges from Egypt irrigated by the same river ) sipping sugared tea and anytime they hear about the Ethiopian dam all that comes to mind is bomb it.

I am sure Ethiopia if such goodwill happened over the years it would have counted for something and I still think it is not too late in the day for Egypt & Sudan to switch the conversation to include conservation.

Well as always I choose to remain an optimist.

Mohammed Hersi
Mombasa