Addis Herald
  • Home
  • History
  • Africa
  • Travel
  • Music
  • Culture
  • Art

Culture

  • calanderEthiopia: A truly unique African country
  • passionfruit-istanbul-croppedPassionfruit’s Globe-Trotting DJ Mixes Tell Stories Through Disco
  • Ethiopia-HighlandsThe most breathtaking geography in Ethiopia
  • Christmas in Lalibela‘Genna’: Christ’s birthday anniversary, an indispensable part of Ethiopian culture
  • the weekendThe Weeknd’s Next Album Will Be Inspired By BLM Movement, COVID-19 Pandemic

Business

  • siemensEthiopia Signs Deal To Build Phase 1 of $440 Million Assela Wind Farm Project
  • EthiopiaCan agriculture be Ethiopia’s growth engine?
  • Orange-Digital-VenturesGIZ and Orange launch an Orange Digital Center in Ethiopia, the 3rd in Africa and the Middle East region
  • 31342IMF and Ethiopia agree framework for loan deal reviews
  • 11-2-696x446Ethiopian Coffee History: From Chewing to Brewing

Africa

  • jad20210225-culture-nefertiti-akhenaton-592x296-1614265493-e1614766131609Ancient Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti & King Akhenaten finally in a photo
  • 20140208_MAP001_0Africa’s manufacturing puzzle: Evidence from Tanzanian and Ethiopian firms
  • battle of adwa woriorThe Victory of Adwa: A Fresh Perspective
  • shutterstock_pricing-317799113ECA Price Watch points to construction sector as key driver of growth
  • africa-s-pulse-april-2018-780x439China’s poverty alleviation model instructive for Africa: expert
thumbs_b_c_8b75a4ba49bfc7525d5a3aadb1269795
April 3, 2020

Egypt’s obsession with the so called ‘historic Nile water right’ stalled the negotiation

Anadolu Agency, by Seleshi Tessema

For the last 12 years, around four days a week, when the light appears over the skies of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Tsehay Wulo, 55, ascends to Entoto, a forested mountain north of the capital.

Throughout the week, hundreds of impoverished young and old women roam the eucalyptus forest which stands 3,200 meters (nearly 10,500 feet) above the sea level to collect firewood.

Some 68 million people of the 110 million population of the Horn of Africa nation has no access to electricity, while 24% of the population lives on less than $1.90 a day.

Consequently, they use the oldest cooking fuel — firewood, charcoal, and animal dung — which makes up 90% of household energy consumption. In Addis Ababa, some 35% of household fuelwood is gathered from Entoto.

Electrified life

On a windy afternoon, Wulo arrived at her client’s home carrying on her back a weighty bundle of firewood she had gathered from Entoto.

Wulo told Anadolu Agency that collecting and selling firewood was her hand-to-mouth life’s work.

“It takes me five to six hours to collect and sell the firewood to feed my two children,” she said in a subdued tone.

“I am very poor and don’t have electricity, so I also collect firewood for my family,” she added.

Wulo sold the firewood to her client Behabtu, 52, for $2.

Behabtu, who lives in Ketchene — a ghetto-type poor neighborhood located in the northern part of the capital — had been waiting for the firewood before noon, but Wulo arrived late in the afternoon, and no one from the family of seven had lunch.

‘Electricity coming’

As Behabtu and her sister Werkaferawu Shenkute began baking Injera, a spongy flatbread made from a tinny teff seed, a cloud of suffocating smoke and heat filled their kitchen made up of plastics.

Behabtu told Anadolu Agency that her family and all her poor neighbors hope that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) would transform their lives.

“Whenever we meet, we discuss when the dam’s electric power will reach us,” she said, adding: “God willing, it will come, and I will get rid of this stove which has been hurting my health for decades.”

Shenkute said that cooking the day’s meal with firewood was laborious, and it is increasingly becoming expensive. “This is our life, what can we do?”

‘Colonial treaties dying’

Hailu Abraham, an official of the GERD’s Popular Participation and Mobilization Coordination Council, told Anadolu Agency that the $5 billion- dam which has been constructed since 2001 “is 72%+ completed”.

Abraham noted that the purpose of the GERD was to provide energy to those 68 million Ethiopians and fledging industry without causing significant harm to Egypt and Sudan.

But Egypt, which depends on the Nile for 90% of its water, fears that the dam will reduce its “historic water rights on the Nile’’ which was enshrined in the 1929 and 1959 colonial-era agreements that provided Egypt with 55.5 billion cubic meters of annual Nile water flow.

According to Abraham, the conception and construction of the GERD had “significantly altered” the efficacy of Egypt’s “historic water rights on the Nile River.”

“We have managed to build the GERD, and shattered the very foundations of Egypt’s reliance on colonial-era agreements,” Abraham said.

People’s dam

According to Abraham, Ethiopia had devised a-self funding scheme that succeeded in generating billions of dollars from the government, and highly motivated citizens at home and abroad.

“Students, low-income pensioners, shoe shiners and even death-row inmates have bought bonds, and or made a donation of a total of 13.8 billion birr [$419.4 million] to date,” he added.

Wulo, Bahabtu and many people of the poor neighborhood had also donated a “small amount of money”.

Unity, animosity

Abdulahi Mohammed, 29, contributed his two-year salary to the GERD, he told Anadolu Agency, adding that the dam was his generation’s identity.

When asked about the dam and Egypt’s position, Mohammed angrily responded, saying: “It is our dam, and Egypt cannot stop it.”

Earlier last week, Seleshi Bekele, Water and Energy Minister and a lead negotiator in the stalled trilateral negotiations among Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, told The Reporter, a weekly newspaper, that throughout the talks, Egypt had been “trying to deny Ethiopia’s right to utilize the waters of Nile.”

“The Egyptians determinedly wanted to impose on us the colonial-era agreements,” Bekele noted, adding: “Egypt’s ongoing media and the diplomatic campaign against Ethiopia does not stop us from completing the GERD.”

Yeshewas Assefa, the chairman of Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice, an opposition party, told Anadolu Agency that GERD was a realization of Ethiopia’s national sovereignty and the right to development.

“We and all in opposition camp support the Ethiopian government’s position in the negotiations as long as it is based on maintaining our national interest, without harming Egypt,” Assefa said.

‘God is with us’

Ethiopians always share the first baked Injera with hot chili with people around. They also serve coffee and thank God for nourishing the daily bread.

After serving the meal, Behabtu said: “My husband, children, and neighbors feel angry at that country [Egypt] that opposes the dam. Why do they hate us?’’

She added: “God has always been with us and our lives will change.”

Source Anadolu Agency

“Global alliance to fight the pandemic” Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed issues call for global unity to beat COVID-19

Related Posts

146431105_2868745810034546_3820944605482349165_o-720x430

Business, grand ethiopian renaissance dam

The construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has reached 78.3 percent

1

Africa, Headlines, Uncategorized

Africa’s Infrastructure Ministers Validate Africa’s Infrastructure Priorities for 2021-2030

W020200213704563507991

Headlines, Uncategorized

Ethiopia launches the second nano high resolution satellite

Industrial Parks Development | Ethiopia |

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-vSnVQfBoo

Africa

  • jad20210225-culture-nefertiti-akhenaton-592x296-1614265493-e1614766131609Ancient Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti & King Akhenaten finally in a photo
  • 20140208_MAP001_0Africa’s manufacturing puzzle: Evidence from Tanzanian and Ethiopian firms
  • battle of adwa woriorThe Victory of Adwa: A Fresh Perspective
  • shutterstock_pricing-317799113ECA Price Watch points to construction sector as key driver of growth
  • africa-s-pulse-april-2018-780x439China’s poverty alleviation model instructive for Africa: expert

Travel

  • Homage to Entoto Park How the Old “Town in the Forest” is turning into a newly flowering tourist hubHomage to Entoto Park How the Old “Town in the Forest” is turning into a newly flowering tourist hub
  • 00ddd3-724x483This Is What It’s Like Trekking the Hottest Place on Earth
  • Screenshot_20200106-034619_GalleryExtreme Ethiopia in pictures
  • Addis-skyline-768x402Enigmatic Ethiopia: Africa’s (still) hidden jewel in the crown?
  • 929-1024x524-488x250Ethiopia’s Tourism sector is on the rise

Culture

  • calanderEthiopia: A truly unique African country
  • passionfruit-istanbul-croppedPassionfruit’s Globe-Trotting DJ Mixes Tell Stories Through Disco
  • Ethiopia-HighlandsThe most breathtaking geography in Ethiopia
  • Christmas in Lalibela‘Genna’: Christ’s birthday anniversary, an indispensable part of Ethiopian culture
  • the weekendThe Weeknd’s Next Album Will Be Inspired By BLM Movement, COVID-19 Pandemic

Business

  • siemensEthiopia Signs Deal To Build Phase 1 of $440 Million Assela Wind Farm Project
  • EthiopiaCan agriculture be Ethiopia’s growth engine?
  • Orange-Digital-VenturesGIZ and Orange launch an Orange Digital Center in Ethiopia, the 3rd in Africa and the Middle East region
  • 31342IMF and Ethiopia agree framework for loan deal reviews
  • 11-2-696x446Ethiopian Coffee History: From Chewing to Brewing

RSS Allfrica.com News feed

  • Africa: Covid-19 Pandemic Sparked Year of Rights Crises
  • Africa: Meet Seven Women Saving the Planet
  • Africa: Over 4 Million Vaccinated Against Covid-19 Across Continent
  • Africa: Online Scammers Rake in Millions From Sale of Covid-19 'Vaccines'
  • Africa: Africa's Urban Risk and Resilience!
  • Africa: Why Community Engagement is Critical in Fight Against Malaria
  • Africa: Key Actors Commit to Smart Nutrition, Ensuring Faster Progress to Ending Malnutrition
  • Africa: Humanitarian Needs Grow in Tigray Region
  • Africa: Why Some Africans Are Wary of the Covid-19 Vaccine
  • Africa: Covid Restrictions Chipping Away At Civil Liberties
  • Abijitta-Shalla National Park
  • Alatish Ethiopian National Park
  • Awash National Park
  • Babille Elephant Sanctuary
  • Bahir Dar Blue Nile Millennium Park
  • Bale National Park; Ethiopia’s lesser-known Treasure
  • Bale Mountains National Park
  • Borena-Sayint National Park
  • Chebera Churchura National Park
  • Dati Wolel National park
  • Gambella National Park
  • Gambella National Park 2
  • Kafta-Sheraro National Park
  • Mago National Park
  • Maze National Park
  • Nechisar National Park, Ethiopia
  • Omo National Park 
  • The Semien Mountains
  • Yabello National Park
  • Yangudi Rassa National Park
© Addis Herald 2021
  • Contact us
en English
af Afrikaansam Amharicar Arabiczh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanel Greekhi Hindiit Italianja Japaneseko Koreanla Latinru Russianes Spanishsu Sudanesesw Swahilisv Swedish