Friday, June 04, 2004
MOST RAINWATER WASTED
The following story is from a recent article in the Times of India.
NAIROBI: It won't be military muscle that settles a centuries-old struggle for access to the Nile. Instead, armies of engineers and financiers will slake the thirst of a war-ravaged region where generations of leaders have tended to arbitrate access to water at the point of a gun. That is the gentle vision of experts trying this week to defuse a potential source of 21st century conflict running up the spine of Africa from the Great Lakes to the Mediterranean.
Problem
Suffering deforestation, soil erosion and erratic rainfall, east African nations fiercely oppose a colonial-era pact giving effective control of the 6,741 km (4,189 mile)-long Nile and its African origins to Egyptian users far downstream. Egypt, in turn, has long challenged any initiative that would squeeze the flow of the Nile to its frontiers. In a turnaround, the governments of the 10 Nile Basin nations this week said a cooperative solution may be in sight.
Solution
Gathering with bankers and aid agencies at a conference in Nairobi, the 10 governments set aside old rivalries to explore cross-border ventures in energy and irrigation to improve collection of rainwater, most of which is currently wasted. "We accept that sustainable management and development of the Nile Basin can only be guaranteed through cooperation," Kenyan Vice President Moody Awori told delegates. The idea is that the ventures, due to start in the next two years, will please politicians by bringing more power and irrigation to Africa's farmers and businesses. Tapping presently unharvested rainwater, they should not hit Nile levels.
"The restructuring of cooperation across this basin has taken several years and will take several more years," David Grey, senior water resources advisor at the World Bank said. "The imperative meanwhile is to get results on the ground, put in development projects and show benefits to poor people." Arab Power Egypt says it is ready to provide technical and financial help to impoverished upstream countries for investment in watershed management, irrigation and water storage systems. To date, few outside a cabal of technicians and development agencies seem aware of the inventive solutions these experts are devising for the rapidly growing region of 300 million people. .
Some governments now accept they need to do a better job of informing their people about the brightening outlook for water.
NAIROBI: It won't be military muscle that settles a centuries-old struggle for access to the Nile. Instead, armies of engineers and financiers will slake the thirst of a war-ravaged region where generations of leaders have tended to arbitrate access to water at the point of a gun. That is the gentle vision of experts trying this week to defuse a potential source of 21st century conflict running up the spine of Africa from the Great Lakes to the Mediterranean.
Problem
Suffering deforestation, soil erosion and erratic rainfall, east African nations fiercely oppose a colonial-era pact giving effective control of the 6,741 km (4,189 mile)-long Nile and its African origins to Egyptian users far downstream. Egypt, in turn, has long challenged any initiative that would squeeze the flow of the Nile to its frontiers. In a turnaround, the governments of the 10 Nile Basin nations this week said a cooperative solution may be in sight.
Solution
Gathering with bankers and aid agencies at a conference in Nairobi, the 10 governments set aside old rivalries to explore cross-border ventures in energy and irrigation to improve collection of rainwater, most of which is currently wasted. "We accept that sustainable management and development of the Nile Basin can only be guaranteed through cooperation," Kenyan Vice President Moody Awori told delegates. The idea is that the ventures, due to start in the next two years, will please politicians by bringing more power and irrigation to Africa's farmers and businesses. Tapping presently unharvested rainwater, they should not hit Nile levels.
"The restructuring of cooperation across this basin has taken several years and will take several more years," David Grey, senior water resources advisor at the World Bank said. "The imperative meanwhile is to get results on the ground, put in development projects and show benefits to poor people." Arab Power Egypt says it is ready to provide technical and financial help to impoverished upstream countries for investment in watershed management, irrigation and water storage systems. To date, few outside a cabal of technicians and development agencies seem aware of the inventive solutions these experts are devising for the rapidly growing region of 300 million people. .
Some governments now accept they need to do a better job of informing their people about the brightening outlook for water.
