Nile by 2050 – The Case of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt (Part I, Part II, and Part III)
By Habtamu Abay
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
July 2013
Introductory background
UN sources indicate that the population of the world in general and that of the developing countries in particular is increasing at an alarmingrate. Due to the advent of modern medication and healthcare systems, death rate is decreasing and life expectancy is rising, instigating the population size to surge upwards. Though not always the case, explosive population increase has its own adverse impacts to resources of countries. One basic resource getting increasingly scarce with the population increment is supply of fresh water. Rivers are one of the sweetest sources of fresh water that support life of plants and animals.
Albeit low in comparison with tropical Africa and Latin America, Ethiopia is endowed with fresh water sources from precipitation, groundwater, lakes and Rivers. Of all the Rivers in Ethiopia, three Nile tributaries account the major surface water flow. Nile water had been the life and the means of ancient civilizations of Egypt and Sudan. Egypt and Sudan have been using Nile water extensively in their everyday life. It is the life line of these nations until today. Obviously, it will be so in the future. Ethiopia, a source of 86% of the Nile flow, is getting too much water starved and is already unable to feed the alarmingly growing population. What will happen to the utilization of Nile water by 2050?
In a series of articles under this title, we will navigate through factual data to elucidate the existing scenarios and the challenges ahead. Part I covers basic socio-economic and natural resources data of the three Nile countries: Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan. In the second part of the article we will be reviewing the water utilization of the three countries and the water basins of Ethiopia. Part III will focus on the way forward towards the effective and equitable utilization of this great gift of Mother Nature, Nile.
Read three papers by downloading PDF files:
Part III
Nile by 2050 – The-Case-of-Ethiopia-Sudan-and-Egypt – Water-Sharing-and-the-Way-out – Part-III
Winner at last! Thank you Mr. Abbay! It seems you’ve given us something to read, about our beloved Abbay. I haven’t overload all the 3 paper’s of yours yet, but your ” Abbay by 2050. ” took my attentions. God allowed Abbay to spring out of our highlands, but Egypt & Sudan are the one who are using it’s fruits. We were not blessed working on it so far, because of our biggest enemy, poverty. Besides poverty, our other barrier was Egypt herself. There is nothing she hadn’t done ( including liberating Eritrea ) to hinder our growth, so that we can’t use Abbay for development. Now thanks to Abbay we have hope of developing our economy. I’m dying to know what happens by 2050 !!! We surely will be a winner at last !!! Thank you. Yared Seyoum.