Spilling Blood over Water? The Case of Ethiopia 307
water allocation. However much instability and conflict have contributed to
the passive acceptance of past inequalities in the allocation of Nile waters.
they are not factors that one can depend on in the future.
The Nile Basin Initiative is a step in the right direction and might bring
mutual benefits to the different riparian countries. One can sense from con-
sulting those directly involved in the negotiations that there is greater confi-
dence that the current cooperative initiative is the only way to achieve tangi-
ble results towards a long-lasting solution for cooperation in managing and
using the Nile waters.Conclusion
Social and political issues have rarely been factored into water development
and utilisation programmes in the past. This chapter has highlighted the role
of social and political factors in resource competitions in Ethiopia. Indeed,
the distribution and use of water is a highly contentious issue from the water
point all the way up to the regional basin level in north-east Africa. To some
extent, recognition of potential conflict over the use of waters that flow
beyond Ethiopia's borders has constrained their development. The lack of
technical skills and international investment, coupled with chronic political
instability and conflict, has meant Ethiopia has not developed the Nile
waters, for example.
At a national level, serious conflict and competition over the distribution
and uses of water remain. These centre on large-scale water schemes that
were constructed beginning in the 1950s to expand agricultural production,
increase power generation and supply water to Addis Ababa and a few major
towns. The irrigation schemes, however, were developed without considera-
tion of local needs and uses of key resource environments where the iniga-
tion schemes were constructed. As a result, conflicts have occurred between
local communities, commercial companies, government authorities and oth-
ers. Poorly informed and planned aid and development intenrentions have
worsened the insecurity of rural poor in many areas.
The irrigation schemes were, to a large extent, concentrated in the Awash
Valley to sustain state-owned sugar estates and fruit and cotton faims. In most
cases, the irrigation schemes failed to involve the local farming populations
and ignored schemes devised using customary methods to irrigate smallhold-
er plots. At the same time, the development of large-scale irrigation schemes
forced traditional land users such as pastoralists off the riverine lands.
Pastoralists, however, are highly dependent upon the key resource areas near
to the river for dry season pasture, as well as access to water points.
The livelihood strategies of pastoralists that were prohibited from access-
ing resources near to the river were completely undermined. Pastoralists were