Posted on 06/04/2010 2:52:34 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
The Nile supplies almost all of Egypt’s fresh water and three quarters of Sudan’s. Both countries claim historic rights over it but neither controls its sources. For thousands of years Egypt has jealously defended its right to use the Nile’s waters as it pleases.
Now, amid warnings of conflict and crop failure, the balance of power is starting to change as other countries make new claims on the water.
Last month most of the countries that occupy the Nile’s headwaters signed an agreement granting themselves greater control of the river and removing a colonial-era veto, held by Egypt for more than 50 years, over how it is used. Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda have already signed up, disregarding a refusal by Egypt and its ally, Sudan, to co-operate. Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo are expected to follow.
Egypt has threatened legal action and said it will not sacrifice a drop of its historic entitlement. Yet a new Ethiopian hydroelectric dam, which opened last month, further emphasises Egypt’s diminishing control over the river that is its lifeblood.
The new World Bank-backed Nile Basin Initiative agreement was a decade in the making. It is intended to replace two existing Nile treaties that ignore the upstream countries.
In 1929 Britain, as the colonial power, signed a deal in the name of its colonies giving Egypt almost all of the Nile water and the veto power over its use upstream. In 1959 a revised treaty gave three quarters of the Nile waters to Egypt with Sudan taking the rest.
However, in recent years the countries to the south have grown more vocal in their demands for a greater share of the water and an end to Egypt’s veto, which includes stopping hydroelectric and irrigation projects that might disrupt the river’s flow
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
The world has gone mad.
lovely places from which to be downstream
Perhaps Egypt should just annex the whole Nile basin ...
Time and time again.
Another region of the world becomes a hotspot. Countdown to Obama going on vacation...
Same as it ever was.
War breaking out all over the place.
See what happens when a peacenik gets elected?
Not peacenik (he’s not), but an INCOMPETENT gets elected. Specifically a foreign raised, muslim, closet bisexual socialist that hates America.
Muslims will rip each others throats out over anything. Might as well be water.
I had wondered as to the genesis of the Southern power axis that was to come against Israel as depicted in Daniel. There may be wars fought over water in that corner of Africa and the formation of a new power axis there is almost sure to occur. China is meddling in Africa, especially in the regions south of Egypt and they have need of the water for their various mining and oil projects.
Interesting....to watch!
lol
Just dam.
Okay I read to the bottom of the article...Yup...China!
The Nile: Africa’s toilet.
The movie, Chinatown, and the Klamath Falls controversy, and the battles over the usage of the water from the Rio Grande river. We’ve got water issues all over the place in this country too.
“Same as it ever was.”
Arrrgggghhh! Now I’ve got that video playin’ in my brain!
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