EZBET RABIE, Egypt: With an economy already in tatters, Egypt’s farmers fear the building of an upstream Nile dam in Ethiopia could lead to water shortages and crop failures with catastrophic effects on their livelihood.
“We don’t want this dam,” says Saeed Al-Simari, standing on his modest land in Egypt’s fertile Nile Delta region.
“We want to plant our land, we need water. It’s hard enough with the water we have, imagine when we don’t have anymore,” said Simari.
“We are very worried about our crops,” he told AFP.
Ethiopia is pressing ahead with construction of a $4.2 billion (3.2 billion euro) Grand Renaissance Dam, set to become Africa’s biggest hydroelectric dam when completed.
The announcement of the project caused a national outcry in Egypt, with politicians, media and farmers warning that the dam could pose a national security threat.
Water experts in Egypt say there is already a water deficit in the country due to the exploding population.
“The average person uses 620 to 640 cubic meters (21,000 to 22,600 cubic feet) per year. With the water poverty level defined at 1,000 cubic meters, we are already below the water poverty level,” says Alaa Al-Zawahry, a dam expert and member of a government commission tasked with studying the downstream impact of Ethiopia’s dam.
Egypt, which fears the project may diminish its water supply, says its “historic rights” to the Nile are guaranteed by two treaties from 1929 and 1959 that allow it 87 percent of the Nile’s flow and give it veto power over upstream projects.
But a new deal was signed in 2010 by other Nile Basin countries, including Ethiopia, allowing them to work on river projects without Cairo’s prior agreement.
In May, Ethiopia began diverting the Blue Nile a short distance from its natural course for the construction of the dam, but has assured its neighbors downstream that water levels would not be affected.
But Egyptians fear a doomsday scenario in which water shortages would lead to crop failures and electricity cuts.
A study by international experts on the dam’s impact on the river has been submitted to Egypt and Sudan, which also relies on Nile resources and supports Ethiopia’s hydro-electric project.
Egypt has dismissed the study’s findings, which minimise the dam’s impact, and has called for further assessments.
The first phase of the Grand Renaissance Dam is expected to be complete in 2016 and will generate 700 megawatts of electricity. When the entire project is complete it will have a capacity of 6,000 megawatts.
The filling of the dam is expected to take around five years and this according to experts will be the most taxing phase for Egypt.
Egypt’s Aswan Dam — which controls annual floods and provides water for irrigation — has a strategic reserve of 70 billion cubic meters, which will drop by 15 billion each year of the filling phase of the Renaissance Dam, says Zawahry.
After five years, “there will be an electricity shortage and the strategic reserve will be used up,” he told AFP.
Ethiopia, for whom the dam promises a much-needed source of energy, has pledged to maintain dialogue with Egypt to resolve any problem.
Zawahry says constant coordination between both countries is crucial.
“There will always be a conflict between Ethiopia wanting to produce more electricity and Egypt receiving the water it needs,” he said.
But it is difficult to accurately predict the exact impact of the Renaissance Dam.
“It’s all a question of probability,” said Zawahry, with many variables playing a part.
“On the Nile, from Ethiopia to Aswan, there are several dams but they are small and their effects are small. But if there will now be a 74 billion cubic meter dam, the management of both dams has to be very well coordinated,” he said.
The water ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia are to hold talks soon to discuss the progress of the dam, Egyptian officials have said.
“We have heard many encouraging statements from the Ethiopian side saying that the dam will not affect Egypt. The mood is positive,” said Khaled Wassef, spokesman for the ministry of water resources and irrigation in Egypt.
“We need the full information on issues like how long exactly will it take to fill the dam, the way it will be managed,” Wassef told AFP.
But on the fields, the farmers are less optimistic.
They say water shortages will force them to use underground wells rather than Nile water, which is richer in nutrients thanks to the silt deposits.
Egypt farmers fear water supply threat from Ethiopia dam
Egypt farmers fear water supply threat from Ethiopia dam
Aidarous Al-Zubaidi: Fugitive at large
- Yemen appoints committee to probe allegations against former STC leader after the group’s collapse and his reported flight from the country
- Preliminary findings accuse Al-Zubaidi of exploiting public office for personal gain, fueling political division and instability in south
LONDON: A special committee formed on presidential authority by Yemen’s public prosecutor’s office has made a series of findings against Maj. Gen. Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, the sacked vice-president of the country’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC).
Al-Zubaidi, who is accused of high treason and other crimes against the state, is currently on the run.
Arab News has seen a copy of preliminary findings by the committee which reveal that Al-Zubaidi is accused of abuses of power including corruption, land grabbing and oil trading for personal gain.
On Jan. 7, the PLC issued a decree revoking Al-Zubaidi’s membership of the PLC and accusing him of high treason and other serious crimes, including forming an armed gang, killing military officers and soldiers, and undermining the country’s sovereignty.
At the same time it authorized the public prosecutor’s office to form a special committee to investigate allegations against Al-Zubaidi, empowering it to summon and arrest individuals, gather evidence and take necessary actions according to the law, with a mandate to complete the investigation quickly and to provide periodic reports to the PLC.
The committee’s preliminary findings identify a series of serious allegations against Al-Zubaidi, who is said to be responsible for multiple abuses “which have contributed to creating a state of political and popular division in the southern governorates.”
Al-Zubaidi is the leader of the Southern Transitional Council (STC). On Jan. 7, Al-Zubaidi was due to attend talks in Riyadh with a 50-member delegation from the STC, but at the last minute, he fled instead.
The committee’s findings include allegations that Al-Zubaidi is alleged to have seized large plots of land, including in the Aden Free Zone, on Al-Ummal Island, in Bir Fadl and the Ras Omran area.
The committee has also uncovered allegations that pressure was exerted on the Yemen Petroleum Company and its director, Tareq Al-Walidi, to prevent the import of fuel except through a company affiliated with Al-Zubaidi’s brother-in-law, Jihad Al-Shoudhabi, and the Minister of Transport, Abdul Salam Humaid.
For nearly two years, it is claimed, Al-Shoudhabi has been the sole supplier, earning large profits that have gone to Al-Zubaidi’s treasury.
The report also identifies commercial companies owned by Al-Shoudhabi and, “behind him,” it is claimed, Al-Zubaidi. Two are named in the report: Alahlia Exchange & Transfers Company and Arabian Furniture Center, one of Yemen’s largest furniture companies. Both are headquartered in Aden.
All these and other “deeply regrettable acts of seizure, plunder, and financial and administrative corruption,” the committee says, “have had serious repercussions in southern circles and were a direct cause of southern division and the emergence of many grievances.”
On Thursday, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said there was reliable intelligence indicating that on the night of Jan. 7, Al-Zubaidi had departed from Aden on a ship bound for Somaliland — probably the port of Berbera, 260 kilometers south across the Gulf of Aden.
From there he is believed to have been flown on a cargo aircraft to Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, via Mogadishu, the coastal capital of Somalia, a flight of about 2,600 km.
Some of the crimes of which Al-Zubaidi is accused relate to the largescale military offensive launched by STC forces across southern Yemen in December.
“We know that the Southern Transitional Council worked to storm the eastern cities militarily,” a source close to the Yemeni government told Arab News.
“The pattern and scale of grave human-rights violations and acts of security and military escalation witnessed by the eastern cities in the south of the homeland — Hadhramout, Al-Mahra and Shabwah — as a result of the military incursion by the forces of the Transitional Council during the monitoring period extending from Dec. 3, are considered heinous crimes against the Yemeni people.”
According to the Yemeni Ministry of Legal Affairs and Human Rights, a total of 2,358 individual offences have been identified, including cases of extrajudicial killing and physical injuries, arbitrary arrests and captivity, enforced disappearance and displacement, and the destruction and looting of public and private property.
Backed by Saudi airstrikes, in the first week of January, the Yemeni government quickly regained the captured territories, Al-Zubaidi was sacked from the PLC and charged with treason, and the UAE announced it would withdraw its remaining troops from the country.
Following Al-Zubaidi’s disappearance on the eve of the planned talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia has accused the UAE of helping to smuggle the wanted man out of the country.
The same source told Arab News there is evidence that Al-Zubaidi “was receiving YER 10 billion ($42 million) monthly … deducted from the aid that Yemen was receiving.
“While Al-Zubaidi was receiving those funds, Yemeni citizens had not been receiving their lawful salaries for years, including the diplomatic corps.”
Last Thursday, Mohammed Al-Jaber, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, announced that the Kingdom would assume responsibility for the salaries of Yemeni state employees, including military personnel, giving $90 million to cover salaries for two months.
On Friday evening, Al-Zubaidi, his whereabouts still unconfirmed, made his first public statement since his disappearance 10 days ago.
“We will no longer accept any solutions that diminish our rights or impose an unacceptable reality upon us,” he wrote in a social media post that left no doubt about his determination to undermine the internationally recognized government of Yemen.
He added: “I pledge to you ... that we will continue together until we achieve the desired national goal.
“With your determination, we will prevail. With your unity, the South will be protected, and with your will, the future state will be established.”
