Ethiopian Water Resources Development

It further insults our intelligence and dignity by stating that Ethiopians should be happy because a German organization has come out with a view that the 1929 and 1959 treaties on the Nile were colonial relics that have no relevance to current realities. This is not the first time that such a discursive frame has been used to inform or misinform the Ethiopian public. I think that this discourse is one of calculated misrepresentation and pregnant with ulterior political motives on the part of successive governing elites of Ethiopia. Besides, we do not need to be told by any country or organization about the legitimacy of our sovereign rights over our national resources. Seeking western legitimization for everything we do or think has become a paralyzing malady in the body politic of the Ethiopian state.

Coming back to the main issue, the Nile watershed is not the only source of water in Ethiopia. Definitely, Abbay (Blue Nile) has a considerable share of the 122cu.m of surface water potential that is available in the 12 river basins and 22 lakes. It also has a considerable share of the 3.3m.ha of irrigable land in Ethiopia. Estimates indicate that Abbay has the largest area of potential irrigation at 760,000 hectares but the Baro-Akobo and Wabi Shebelli basins have 6000,000 and 355,000 hectares of irrigable land respectively. One may definitely argue that these two latter basins are sparsely populated and difficult to develop given the ecological, political, economic and cultural realties of the current Ethiopian state.

I do not understand why many Ethiopian writers on the subject make so much noise about the 1929 and 1959 agreements between Egypt and Britain and Egypt and Sudan respectively. Ethiopia has never recognized these treaties and common sense dictates that it cannot be bound by them. Ethiopian leaders, including the present ones, have expressed this on so many different occasions that  it cannot continue to serve as an impediment to water resources development in Ethiopia unless we want it to be. In fact, the continuous spinning of this factor as an impediment should only be construed as a politically-motivated misrepresentation of the social reality. It also flies in the face of more recent Egyptian utterances on the subject.

The Egyptian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr Marawan Badr, was quoted as follows at two different times in 1998: “Egypt recognizes that each state has the right to equitable utilization of its waters in accordance with international law. Egypt further recognizes that existing water agreements do not hinder the utilization of the Nile waters by any of the riparian states. Egypt is ready to cooperate with Ethiopia in exploiting its huge hydro-electric power potentials and did not object to the construction of small-scale water dams”. Alluding to the accusation that Egypt wants to see a weak Ethiopia, the ambassador said that “such political commentary, or more correctly, political trash, cannot come except from a sick and disturbed mind. Egyptian-Ethiopian relations are not in a crisis. We do not have even problems. There are serious issues, which need to be addressed (Addis Tribune, August 7 and 14 of 1998). Is there a clearer stand than this? Even if Egypt has other designs, it is its own business. Ethiopia is a sovereign state and is not bound by the decisions, imaginations and fantasies of Egypt.

Hence, the continued discourse of misrepresentation of the national and international reality cannot be anything but politically motivated. Successive Ethiopian governments, including the present one, have failed miserably to institute a system of democratic governance that could endear them to their own people. In fact, they have been and remain very rude and cruel grafts into the body politic of Ethiopian society with very little legitimacy and hence the power to mobilize the huge human and natural resource potentials of the country. They ruled and continue to rule through fear and institutionalized terror. Hence, no one can expect such illegitimate governments to muster the grand vision and political, economic and cultural backing of the Ethiopian people for undertaking sustainable water resource development projects. Hydraulic civilizations of yesteryears may not have been democratic but they were definitely strong states that had the political and social will and grand vision to turn water into a veritable vehicle of great economic and social transformation. The Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Chinese, Incan and Mayan civilizations all used water to create enduring civilizations whose material, social and institutional legacies and ramifications reverberate to this day.

Thus, the problem of water resources development in Ethiopia is more a function of the dysfunctional nature of successive Ethiopian states and governance systems rather than the hydro-politics of Egypt. The monarchy, the Dergue and EPRDF have all presided over weak client states whose perennial existence has been and continues to be largely due to the largesse of international donors. Likewise, Egypt is largely a client state whose continued existence is tied to American largesse and the remittances of its diasporas in the Gulf states. The present Ethiopian government is neither capable nor willing to call a spade a spade. The Ethiopian adage “Ahyawin fertew dawlawin metut” (beating the sack for fear of the donkey) captures the social reality well. Ethiopia’s pitiful development of its vast water resources has nothing to do with Egyptian hydro-politics and everything to do with successive dysfunctional Ethiopian state. Get real. The mGonkey is on our own backs and no amount of resort to the discourse of the wrath of God, drought, desertification, Egypt, imperialism or God knows what will explain the pitiful state of water resources development in Ethiopia.

Systematic studies on the subject have time and again indicted that the knowledge, technological and political gaps for sustainable development water resources in Ethiopia are immense.  The hundreds of small ponds and micro-dams built in Tigrai regional state at considerable investment are not producing anything significant. The failure of the Cuban built Debre Zeit micro-dam, Russian built Akobo dam and Ethiopian built Kombolcha dam all indicate that we do not yet have the requisite institutional capacity and knowledge base to mange water resources. Likewise, we do not have a system of governance that is genuinely committed to the transformation of Ethiopia’s huge water resources potential into goods and services for the Ethiopian people. We need a bolder political vision, a democratic order and the requisite knowledge to use our considerable water resources potential. Pointing a finger at Egypt every time the issue of water resources development is discussed is either the height of naivete or a deliberate distortion of the social reality or both.    n