Spilling Blood over Water? The Case of Ethiopia 301
irrigated area substantially through desert reclamation schemes in the Sinai
and in the south-western area of the county, under the New Valley
Development Project. These projects apparently require an estimated addi-
tional eight billion cubic metres of water annually.210 Egypt's position is that
any reduction of its share of Nile waters under the 1959 Nile Waters
Agreement will be ruinous. Said contests: " ... major dams intended for long-
term storage at the Blue Nile headwaters ... will seriously affect the water
available to Egypt and Sudan. For Egypt, in particular, they could wreak
havoc on the many land reform projects undenvay in the Delta, Sinai and
Upper Egypt. "2"
Others argue that the construction of the reservoirs upstream on the Blue
Nile in Ethiopia will benefit all three countries by significantly reducing the loss
of water through evaporation at the High Aswan Darn, as well as carefully reg-
ulating the upstream flow to prevent further losses themaz Collins explains:
"... ironically, the Blue Nile plan if properly managed would not substantially
affect the water available to Egypt and the Sudan. Under appropriate working
arrangements the amount of water for irrigation throughout the Nile Basin
could actually be increased."213 There exist possible alternatives for cooperation
in the Nile Basin that would be muttally beneficial to all basin countries and
mitigate tensions that currently exist between Ethiopia and downstream ripari-
an countries. However, to attain this level of cooperation will require confi-
dence-building measures between the different basin countries.
Egypt's intransigence lies in its concern of losing control of its water sup-
ply from the Nile. Ethiopia may need to reassure the Egyptians that its pro-
posed developments of Nile waters will not reduce the share of waters Egypt
currently enjoys. Wittington and McClelland contend, "...the possibility oi
the Blue Nile reservoirs being operated during drought to strategically with-
draw water from Egypt is an ancient nightmare of Egypt, and Ethiopia must
offer specific and concrete proposals to allay Egyptian fears in this regard.""'Political Relations
Use and control of the Nile waters has greatly influenced the political rela-
tions between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. Because of the perception in many
Egyptian circles and by Egyptian leaders that any change in allocation of Nile
waters is a threat to their national security, Egyptians on occasion have insin-
uated threats of force. These threats were usually in response to Ethiopia offi-
cially asserting its rights to use the Nile waters. In 1979 when Ethiopia
announced that it would use the waters of the Blue Nile, Egyptian president
Anwar Sadat responded by threatening to bomb any.diversion projects. Egypt
has also accused Ethiopia on several occasions of cooperating with Israel to
build dams on the Blue Nile, although there is no concrete evidence to sup-
port this allegation.z15 In a recent article in At-Hayat, Said contends that