(Editorial of IBD -Investor’s Business Daily)
Egypt is beating the war drums against Ethiopia over its plan to build a giant dam on the Nile, affecting a quarter of Egypt’s water supply. Given both countries’ needs, it’s a tough problem to solve. But it can be done.
It’s fairly shocking to think that with all the turmoil going on in the Middle East, a new — and surprisingly dangerous — problem has emerged in the water dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia.
But senior Egyptian officials have literally threatened war over Ethiopia’s $4.7 billion Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Egypt believes will significantly cut its water supply as the giant reservoir is filled.
Last Monday, President Mohammed Morsi declared Egypt would keep “all options open” (including military ones) on the dam, one week after Egyptian politicians discussed attacking Ethiopia on Egyptian TV.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia added fuel to the fire on Thursday, when its parliament voted to increase its use of Blue Nile water. This contradicted the country’s official claim its dam won’t affect Egypt’s supplies because its sole purpose is to generate 6,000 megawatts of power.
Each side has a case. Egypt’s 8,000-year-old civilization owes its existence to the uninterrupted flow of the Nile to Cairo and the delta. And it can produce a 1929 British colonial-era treaty that entitles it to 80% of the Nile supply — 80% of which originates in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia, meanwhile, believes it has a right to the water, and it doesn’t recognize the 1929 treaty because it didn’t sign it. With 87 million people, more than Egypt’s 85 million, it is desperate for development.
The New York Times chalks the whole dispute up to the eye-glazing Malthusian tropes of “global warming” and “overpopulation,” and sees no solution. But there is a solution — right from a neighbor that’s the world’s leader for efficient use and generation of water: Israel.
Ten years ago, Israel and its neighbors had water shortages that were seen as likely to lead to inevitable conflict. Today, there’s no water crisis, because Israel has solved its shortages through free-market innovation. It now exports its expertise across the globe — from China to the U.S. Rocky Mountain states.
Politics aside, Egypt and Ethiopia should be pounding down the doors of Israel’s companies for a solution that will permanently secure their nations’ water needs.
Israel could show Egypt and Ethiopia two things: how to make water use efficient so that very little is wasted, and how to turn waste water into potable water, both of which would mean enough water for everyone.
“There’s a view that the Middle East faces an impossible water predicament,” author George Gilder told an American Freedom Alliance conference last week. “In reality, the water crisis is bogus.”
He pointed out that Israel resolved its water problems by using the talents of its entrepreneurs. “Since 1948 Israel’s population is up 10-fold, arable land threefold, agriculture output 16-fold, industrial output 50-fold, yet net water usage dropped 10%,” Gilder said.
The country recycles 83% of its own water, buys sewage from the Palestinians to turn into usable water, invented drip irrigation and is the world leader in desalinization. These have made Israel close to self-sufficient in water ever since it freed its economy in 1995.
Israeli Consul General David Siegel, speaking at the Israel Conference in May, noted that even U.S. governors from states such as Arizona, Nevada, Utah and California have shown interest in Israel’s water technologies.
Politics might suggest it would be impossible for someone like the Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi to seek Israel’s help in resolving Egypt’s water problem.
Given Morsi’s own mismanagement of the economy and unpopularity, there’s a great danger he will choose to go to war with Ethiopia rather than consult Israel — a nation that Egypt still is, officially, at peace.
But if he gambles against Ethiopia, he may lose. Morsi’s grip on power has never been weaker, and his influence in the region has never been lower.
Analysts say Ethiopia would have never gone ahead with the dam while Hosni Mubarak was in power — and the solution from Israel is obvious.
Gilder noted in his book, “The Israel Test,” that every nation faces the dilemma of reacting to Israel’s success, either through jealousy or by learning from its ways. If Morsi can break with his foolish fundamentalist past, an existential threat will evaporate — and Egypt will have no issue with Ethiopia.
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Source: Investor’s Business Daily – Editorial page – June 14, 2013, titled “Yes, There Is A Solution To Egypt’s Water Crisis With Ethiopia”.
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