Water is Thicker than Blood

Amen Teferi 06-07-16

Together with its tributaries, Nile’s total length would be well more than three million kilometers. Hence, the Nile is one of the longest rivers in the world. Its catchment area totals again some two million and nine hundred square kilometers. Thus, the catchment area almost represent about one-tenth of the surface area of the entire African Continent.

Nile is a river system that originates from two distinct geographical zones. On one hand, you have the White Nile, which measures some 5,611 kilometers from its source in Lake Victoria and on the other; you have the Blue Nile, which traverse some 4,588 kilometers from its source in Seqala or Lake Tana.

The first subsystem, with the White Nile as its main artery, originates in the equatorial lakes of East and Central Africa, the most important of which is Lake Victoria, and in the Bahr-el-Ghazal water system — a vast lagoon formed by the convergence of a number of streams rising to the East and North of the Nile-Congo divide. The other subsystem consists of the Blue Nile and its tributaries, the Atbara and the Sobat, which originates from the Ethiopia Plateau.

The Nile River is made up of three main tributaries. These are the White Nile, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara and each of these tributaries would form different sub-system. The White Nile springs from the highlands of Rwanda and Burundi, and flows into Lake Victoria. Again, it leaves Lake Victoria at its northern shore (near the town of Jinja in Uganda), flows through the marshy stretch around Lake Kyoga (in central Uganda), and heads north towards Lake Albert.

On its way to Sudan, the White Nile receives good amount of water from various rivers, which have their sources in highlands of Uganda and Congo. The White Nile, while heading north to Sudan repeatedly empties itself first into different Lakes (Lake Victoria, Lake Edward, and Lake Albert) where it receives additional water all along the course until it enters into Southern Sudan.

Lake Victoria, Lake Edward, and Lake Albert serve as natural reservoirs, which collect and store great quantities of water from the high rainfall regions of eastern Equatorial Africa and maintain a permanent flow down the White Nile with relatively small seasonal fluctuations.

In Sudan, near its capital city - Khartoum, the White Nile meets the Blue Nile that comes from the Ethiopian Highlands. There, the two rivers flow together just to north of Khartoum where some 108 kilometers downstream, they will be joined by Atbara, the last important river in the Nile system, whose source is Eritrea. Then, the Nile flow north through Lake Nasser and the Aswan Dam before splitting into major distributaries (the Rosetta and Damietta), just north of the capital city Cairo. Then, these distributaries flow into the Mediterranean Sea.

Until recently, there has been unfair assumption that the purpose of the Nile is to feed only two countries with water –Sudan and Egypt. This is clearly reflected in the focus to measure the flow of the Nile based on how much water reaches Sudan or Egypt. Moreover, there is something infinitely misleading about the measuring of the annual flow of the Nile at Khartoum or Cairo.

In this regard, Okoth-Owiro (2004) citing Godana (1985) wrote that the average annual flow of the Nile, as measured in Aswan, is 84 billions of cubic meters. Then he added:

 

However, he noted that it is important that the statistics of the flow of the Nile are a complex matter, which the above estimates tend to over-simplify. For one thing, estimating the flow of the Nile based on how much water reaches Sudan or Egypt is wrong. This is because the purpose of the Nile is not to feed only these two countries with water. If we measure based on such an assumption, we are assuming that it is only the water that reach its destination is worth accounting for.

On the contrary, the waters of the Nile are important and useful for and in the entire basin. It is equally useful for the entire people living from Kagera to the Mediterranean. Therefore, what should be measured is the amount of water leaving the lake plateau of East Africa and the Ethiopian Highlands rather than what passes through Khartoum or what water reaches Egypt.

This would give us an estimate or a more realistic of the water contributions the above cited three main tributaries of River Nile, namely the White Nile, Blue Nile, and Atbara. Hence, measuring the flow of the Nile at Khartoum is not only misleading, but also meant to encourage the unfair claims the two countries had so far been advancing.

Unlike the present, we remember that Egyptians were at sixes and sevens following the announcement of the rerouting of the Blue Nile River. Gone deep in the sea of fear and confusion, they were easily taken by the old “saber-rattling behavior.” Nevertheless, gradually and painstakingly they have tried to accept the project as fact of their life and understood that a good bet for an Egyptian is to join wholeheartedly the group that had vowed to work in cooperative spirit by accommodating every party’s rightful interest based on the cooperative framework that would ensure the equitable utilization of the Nile water. This is the wise choice, that would unlikely be proved wrong for eternity.

As betting up on the age-old machination of closing the doors of international financial institutions does not work anymore, it is wise to comply with the veritable terms and conditions of the 21 century. Now Egyptians leaders change the competitive spirit that has dictated their actions in the past.

In fact, Egyptians had effectively employed this old art for centuries in gaining diplomatic and psychological advantage over other riparian countries including Ethiopia. However, the tactics that have efficiently been working in winning games over Nile has now become obsolete and vanished. Therefore, the armor that has been protecting Egypt now proved to be a shield that would not lasts for perpetuity. Egypt can never benefit by creating hysteria in a manner that would greatly increase the probability of problem.

Water, which thus far happened to be one of the contentious and volatile elements in the Northeastern African region is now seen to be a potentially key factor that furnished a room for regional peace and cooperation. Over the past decades, competition over water has been seen a source of conflict in the region.

The Nile basin which were assumed as the most dangerous resource has changed and shown very encouraging development. Nile Basin initiative (NBI) has gone a great length in breaking some of the psycho-political hurdles surrounding the basin. Now we began to realize that the Nile offers great potential to all concerned. We can envisage now the possibility of having a ground scheme of regional water development plan that would take in to account or incorporate the political realities of the region that will help them to work out a plan and remain to engage in constructive dialogue. As such, water would lead the direction for conflict resolution of a regional magnitude.

One of the notable implications one could draw from this fact is that what has been a key source of conflict in the region is witnessed to be an element that forge a strong economic interdependence for the sub- region.

What is underscored in the process is that even the age-old animosity and mistrust and the interstate rivalry that characterize the Ethio-Egypt relation has undergone a most significance transformation that would open up a venue for a warm friendship between the two countries. Rephrasing the old adage, I would say, water is thicker than blood.