Death on the Nile

In Ethiopia, the construction of the Grand Renaissance dam, seems to be advancing, and the discussions around the water rights on the Nile got more intense. Aljazeera, in its program Inside Story wants to "examine the impact on water supply for Egypt's growing population."



It is almost a comical discussion that is presented in this debate that brings together, Bereket Simon, Ethiopian minister of information, Lama el-Hatow, co-founder of water institute of the Nile and Cleo Paskal  writer of Global Warring: How Environmental, Economic and Political Crises Will Redraw the World Map.  

It is a strange combination of guests, holding their pre-programmed monolgues on the Nile, which are too long for the time given by the moderator. It is also about  three invitees who fight with very unequal weapons. Instead of emotional monologues, now facts about water and solutions to conflictual situations are needed. The only one who really talked about the technicalities, threats and opportunities about the Dam is the Ethiopian minister, but his English is not good enough (ironically the Minister of information) to truly contribute to a constructive debate (he is just reciting the official story, that seems correct from a hydrological point of view, but not answering the questions).

Let me summarize my (non-hydrologist and non-expert) understanding of the problem and please feel free to correct them by commenting this blog.

1. there is a certain amount of water in the Ethiopian Blue Nile, if water is used for electricity, then potentially the same amount of water will be flowing to Egypt. (which is not be the case if lots of water would be used for agriculture, i.e water is consumed by plants, as it is for example done in Sudan)
2. With the dam, the water arriving in Egypt, will be more evenly distributed through out the year (as it is stored and used for evenly used for electricity production) allowing to reduce shortages in the dry season.
3. The dam will keep silt up-stream, reducing siltation of down-stream dams (i.e reducing costs for downstream dams in Sudan and Egypt).
4. Storing water for electricity in highlands is a regional optimum, as it is situated in a cooler area, there is less evaporation (i.e. less water loss).
5. Filling the dam, might be a huge problem, because during this time there will be less (up to no water) flowing to Egypt. But it is a transitional time that needs to be managed smartly and across boundaries.
6. Ethiopia could switch the water off from Egypt (but just up to the point when the dam is full).
7. There could be ecological impacts due to more evenly distributed water and to the diversion. But let's face it, the first people to be damaged by the diversion are the (few) Ethiopian living around the dam. Secondly, this is not the first dam on the Nile, the famous flooding of the Nile we all learnt about at school bringing fertile soils and allowing to feed the Pharaohs is not existing anymore for a long time already. 

However, i am not sure if better watershed management, i.e. rainwater management, will increase the water availability in Egypt (as the Minister said), because again the amount of water in the area remains unchanged (note that some of my ex-colleagues come to the conclusion that increased use of water for food production through improved rainwater management is marginal), but its distribution will be changed,  siltation is reduced and water quality might be improved. Climate change, (i.e the global amount of water in the region is decreased) is an issue that is important and that emerges with or without dam. The dam could even help reducing impact of climate change.

When i look at the list above, I see two points where Egypt should be worried about, the dam filling if not done smartly could be a huge problem as well as Ethiopia switching off the water fully. There should be clear agreements for these points, as for example on a minimum flow (get inspired, there is a legal minimum flow to every dam in Switzerland to preserve the ecosystem). All the other points should not be so much of a problem to Egypt. Egypt can even benefit. And if not? then why is it that none of all these pro-Egyptian experts (who speak English very well) can explain it in clear words?

Working in water in Africa ? Join the competition!

By Prof. Nick van de Giesen (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands), guest writer

Building no less than 20,000 weather stations across Africa; one very 30 km. That is the aim of the ambitious Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) project, a joint initiative from Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) and Oregon State University. In an earlier blog post we reported on this project from Mauritius.

Presently, the African observation network is very limited. National governments and regional planners do not have the data to make proper decisions regarding investments in water resources infrastructure. With an increase in quantity and quality of climate stations, we can move forward towards the goal of obtaining accurate climate data. This data is essential for agriculture (e.g. harvest predictions), weather predictions and climate modelling. Furthermore, the stations would be placed at schools and integrated in the educational program.

TAHMO is an ambitious and inspiring project but it still is in the initial phase; TAHMO is an  extensive project with various aspects that need to be addressed before we can start building the  observation network on the African continent. Topics that need to be considered go beyond designing and building the weather stations network. Also legal issues around the measurements, maintenance  of the stations and expertise on how to integrate TAHMO in the education curricula are of high importance.
We are aware of the fact that for these issues to be addressed adequately, local experience is essential. Therefore, we are building a community around TAHMO, consisting of (African) individuals, universities, (scientific) institutes and other relevant organisations that are supportive of our project and are willing to think along with us on the various aspects of this grand project.

In order to take the first steps in building this community, the TAHMO Sensor Design Competition is being organised (deadline 1 March 2013, extension possible upon request) among African campuses, engineering societies, research centres and technology communities. The objective of this competition is to design a sensor that measures a weather or hydrological variable and is both inexpensive and robust, but also requires zero maintenance for two years. Among parties that have shown their interest in participation are the Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia), the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), the Kenya Polytechnic University College and the Ghana Institution of Engineers.

Of course, we would like to expand the TAHMO community as vastly as possible. We therefore would like to encourage everyone who is interested to join our community and participate in discussions on www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4729379 or  www.facebook.com/TAHMO.competition. More information on the TAHMO project and the competition can be found on www.TAHMO.org. Together we can make TAHMO work!

Initially this blog was meant as a place to report from development in rural areas around the world. I am therefore very happy to introduce the new label "guest writer" to my blog and proudly publish this blog post contributed by Nick. I hope this will motivate other to contribute to this blog too!

Groundwater in Ethiopia: Features, Numbers and Opportunities

Groundwater has a huge potential increasing resilience and incomes of the rural poor in Africa. Indeed it gives the possibility to smallholders to access water during the dry season and maintain home gardens (http://catherinepfeifer.blogspot.ch/2012/06/success-and-failures-maksenit-watershed.html), adding a cropping season or insure sufficient drinking water for the household and livestock.

Unfortunately very few data are available about groundwater in Africa and more particularly in Ethiopia. The recent global African map by  MacDonald et al 2012 (http://catherinepfeifer.blogspot.ch/2012/04/accessing-ground-water-is-easiest-way.html) is a good step but remains relatively non detailed. Seifu Kebebe a researcher from Addis Ababa University, has looked into more details into groundwater in Ethiopia and has just published a book about it.

This book obviously fills a huge gap for water management in Ethiopia!

More about this book and be found under the following links : 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Groundwater-Ethiopia-Features-Opportunities-Hydrogeology/dp/3642303900#reader_3642303900
http://www.springer.com/earth+sciences+and+geography/hydrogeology/book/978-3-642-30390-6
 
The International Water Management Institute in Addis Ababa, per courtesy of Seifu has access the groundwater maps presented in the book. Please contact the GIS team or myself for more information about these maps and conditions of access.

The dream of full coverage real weather data for Africa (Mauritius reporting series)

I am currently in Mauritius at the conference on water management in Africa. Far from the white and beautiful beaches and with the constant sounds of heavy rains, about 100 participants found their way to the Reduit near Moka at the Sugar research Institute. Presentations and posters are very diverse, from hydrological modeling to genetically modified maize passing through water sanitation and discussions are lively.
I have selected some presentations and posters I though where particularly interesting for my work, and the work of my colleagues. I gave the presenters a chance to summarize their research into 2-5 minutes videos I will share them with you in the upcoming weeks in the form of the"Mauritius reporting series".

For today I would like to share with you Professor Nick van de Giesen's (and his team's) dream of a full coverage real weather data for Africa. As shown in the figure on the left, Africa has a low density of weather stations, that are not functional most of the time. There is therefore very few real weather data in Africa and scientists mainly rely on remote sensing.
Nick's dream is to develop efficient robust low cost weather station in order to cover the whole of Africa, and complete/validate the current data based on remote sensing. Also he sees a great opportunity to work with schools.
See his own explanations :

Nick obviously does not work alone, he is supported by a broad team within the "Trans-African Meteorological Observatory ". Find out more about this project under :
http://www.tahmo.org/