Egypt's Water Policy Under Scrutiny Amid Nile Debate

Egypt stands out for its chronic mismanagement of water resources, despite contributing virtually nothing to the flow of the Abay (Nile)--a striking paradox at the heart of the Nile debate. For many hydropower analysts and transboundary water experts, water stored in Egypt's downstream reservoirs suffers from high rates of evaporation due to the country's hot desert climate. For Fekahmed Negash, Chairperson of the Advisory Team on Transboundary Water and GERD at Ethiopia's Ministry of Water and Energy, this downstream nation's vast reservoir lies in Egypt's hot desert environment and is exposed to substantial evaporation losses. He estimated that the Aswan High Dam loses about 15 to 16 billion cubic meters of water annually through evaporation. Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn Contrary to popular belief, this hard fact and the UN's designation of Egypt as a water-scarce country, the nation possesses immense water potential that remains hugely misunderstood. Egypt has underground water enough for hundreds of years even if rain stops in Ethiopia for years. Egypt wastes water and has some of the worst practices in doing so. Egypt acts as if it has a swath of marshland and produces sugarcane and rice. What is appealing is that it wishes others not even to drink fresh water and produce cabbages for it to continue wasting water. Egypt wants Ethiopia to forgo its development and wallow in poverty for Egyptians to enjoy affluence. Egypt has proclivities of splashing water into a desert and creating sprawled cities, while it does not wish Ethiopians to have even light and stoves in their houses. Egypt doesn't know how to be grateful. They pretend they are scared of water scarcity, but they don't wish to thank Ethiopia for planning more than 50 billion seedlings . Rather, it leaves no stone unturned to destabilize Ethiopia--what a twist. Egypt believes it is a neighbor to Ethiopia because it considers Sudan just as an appendage. That's why it is bent on dismantling Sudan using sellouts. Egypt doesn't wish any country on both sides of the Red Sea to thrive--what a brinkmanship! Read the original article on ENA . AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 90 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals , representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica . To address comments or complaints, please Contact us . AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 600 news and information items daily from over 90 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC. Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy . We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.