The latest issue of AWRA's excellent (Note: I am Editor-in-Chief) bimonthly magazine Water Resources IMPACT just hit the streets. Its theme: 'Dams: Past, Present and Future'. Guest Editor Lisa Beutler and I had fun with titling the issue ('Damnation', 'Give a Dam', etc.) but Managing Editor Heidi Fritschel wisely curbed my puerile instincts.
That's Hoover Dam on the cover with what's left of Lake Mead behind it...
I contributed a brief article on Ethiopia's massive Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and the changes it's effecting in the Nile Basin. Although I spent 5 months on sabbatical with the Egypt's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, although my office was out on the Delta on Rosetta Branch of the Nile River.
I am not an expert on Nile Basin issues; just fascinated by this huge river and the effects of GERD on hydropolitics.
Here is the intro to the article:
MY FASCINATION WITH THE NILE RIVER AND ASSORTED
basinwide, transnational water issues was forged almost 30 years ago. In 1995 I was at the University of New Mexico taking my first sabbatical in Egypt's Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, based in Cairo. The ministry managed all the water in the country—consisting mainly of the Nile River an all irrigation projects. I was assigned to the ministry’s Research Institute for Groundwater (RIG), based in the Nile Delta. My sabbatical had been suggested and arranged by my former doctoral student, Isam Amin, a Sudanese national who had good relationships with the RIG folks. He and I felt that this would be an excellent way to whet my nascent appetite for big-picture water resources management. Was he ever right!Although RIG dealt with groundwater, I got a strong sense of the importance of the Nile River to Egypt. The institute occupied a building on the Rosetta Branch, one of the two major branches (distributaries) of the Nile River. The Damietta Branch, to the east, was the other distributary. We were adjacent to a large barrage on the Rosetta Branch. A barrage dam is usually a low structure with many gates that can be raised and lowered to adjust the river's stage so that water can be diverted to canals for irrigation and other purposes.
“No Nile, no Egypt” was a favorite quip of one of my colleagues. He was the one most concerned with other countries’ use of Nile water. He was also glad that the Aswan High Dam, the creator of Lake Nasser, was protected by anti-aircraft batteries. Since Egypt and Israel had signed a peace treaty about 15 years earlier, I could not imagine why such weapons were needed. Who would take Egypt's water? Now, nearly 30 years later, the water of the Nile are the subject of intense controversy, thanks to Ethiopia’s construction of its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam—GERD for short.
GERD is a milestone in Ethiopia's development. Constructed on the Blue Nile River, GERD will provide about as much hydroelectric power as the Grand Coulee Dam and store more water than Lake Mead plus Lake Powell at full pool. It will bring Ethiopia a host of other so that water can be diverted to canals for irrigation and other purposes.
Read on: Download Ethiopia_Dam_Map_WRI_May_June2022
Enjoy!
"No Nile, no Egypt." - former Egyptian colleague of mine
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