Comments on: Nile River row: Could it turn violent?

By: candide08

candide08 — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:18:44 +0000

So, the world may see the first major water war, but we still do virtually nothing about climate change.

By: BlowMack

BlowMack — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:07:46 +0000

i dont understand how a stupid treaty can be created on how to use a resource that doesn’t belong to you. This neo colonial treaty should be trashed. Its because of these treaties that Ethiopia has had a hard time in the past. The water starts in Ethiopia, so therefore it’s Ethiopia’s water. Get it.

By: khartoumboy

khartoumboy — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:54:22 +0000

It’s strange that the Egyptians appear so supportive of the British-established way of doing things – does this mean that Cairo will be returning the Suez canal to its British owners / creators, along with 50 years of compensation, interest payments etc?

If not, one might accuse Egypt of hypocrisy. Certainly, if for instance Ethiopia were to ‘nationalise’ the Blue Nile in contravention of the 1929 agreement it would only be following Nasser’s example…

By: sallycw

sallycw — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:33:50 +0000

The reason all of this is becoming a greater problem is that all these countries including Egypt have populations that have gone out of control. Too many mouths to feed. They need to take urgent action over this or there will be war over the water.

By: davideconnolly

davideconnolly — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 06:12:36 +0000

If Ethiopia damns the Nile, they will be no better than the Chinese damning the Mekong delta which provides water and ancient rice farming lifestyles to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Viet Nam. Just because a river begins in a country doesn’t mean they have exclusive rights to it. What man owns the world as to deprive all others of its bounty? Less people is the answer not more greed; the world cannot support everyone having 9 babies. People must start taking some responsibility for the problems overpopulation is causing the world, including pollution and resource scarcity. Enough babies!

By: 1964

1964 — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:21:24 +0000

There are enough food, water and energy resources in the world to benefit all people and living things. The problem is the distribution: in the USA, people eat themselves to death. In Ethiopia, people starve to death. Egypt wants 2/3 of the Nile water while countries upstream don’t have enough for lack of storage basins. The peoples in the middle live off the Nile. If dams are built upstream, there won’t be any fish and silt in the river anymore for those further down its course.

Water reservoirs for agriculture can be built and filled without damming the river. A portion of the water can be channelled into a basin. All countries along the Nile have a lot of sun. Electricity can be generated with solar collector stations for export, with localized collectors for domestic use. Water can be pumped from storage basins to areas subject to draught via water pipelines. Lower lying regions bordering the sea can use desalination plants to produce potable water for consumption and agriculture.

Food can be traded against other commodities, which will give each country an export and import product.

Americans should do as Michelle said: Eat more vegetables, preferably locally grown ones – or from people’s own victory garden – that will cause them to consume less food, which leaves more for export. Other foods can be imported. The US can export technology to reach a just distribution of the world’s resources instead of fighting war to enrich itself unduly from the death of others.

The collected world governments should make an effort to solve real problems in constructive, effective ways instead of starting wars and blowing the world’s resources up in the air for no more reasons than greed, false prestige and illegitimate so-called national interests.

Redistribution of the world’s resources will be the greatest guarantee of world peace and stability. The primary obstacle is greed and other false political ambitions of western nations, up front the USA, not the NIle or any other scarce resources, . The same way that children have to learn not to overpower and hit each other, nations of the world have to learn not to overpower each other with war.

By: ChrisBlackwell

ChrisBlackwell — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:16:42 +0000

Water will become the next oil market. Controling that market will be a matter of life and death for the countries involved. Already international corporation are buying up water rights and the water princes will be even wealthier than the oil princes of today. Food production even population control will be limited by the growing lack of usable water in the future.

By: Humility101

Humility101 — Mon, 30 May 2011 20:20:05 +0000

Amazing,in most of the ethnic and regional conflict that has and will come up in Africa, whether in the form of land ownership,resource ownership,colonial agreements, Britain will be the cause because of the way they muddled through handling of treaties and conflict during colonial era times. I propose that Britain should now spend much more diplomatic capital in helping negotiate new and equitable compromises to solve problems such as water distribution from the Nile.

By: sanitynotwar

sanitynotwar — Sun, 22 May 2011 12:47:11 +0000

The last comment, while poorly worded, gets to the heart of the problem!
Even if reason prevails and you solve the water division issue, it’s only a temporary solution if your population continues to explode.
Think of what Africa will be like when your grandchildren are old and the population has doubled or tripled!

(posted by an American who was an African Studies major in college)

By: Ratt

Ratt — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:26:35 +0000

Hahahaha, you idiots breed like rabbits and now the water is running out. Not to bright, eh ?