Threat of war over Nile recedes

Press, 13 August 1980, Page 16

Threat of war over Nile recedes

By

ALISTAIR MATHESON

in Khartoum

The threat of war between Ethiopia and Egypt over the use of Nile- water has receded after the intervention o f Sudan’s President Numeiry.

Tempers flared in Ethiopia when it was learned that President Sadat had promised Israel he would divert water from the Nile to irrigate parched land in the Sinai desert.

Ethiopia’s Chairman Mengistu Haile Mariam has developed a strong dislike for Sadat since coming to power in Addis Ababa after the 1974 revolution. Early on, he began to see Sadat as an enemy because of the Egyptian President’s long support of Somalia, an ancient enemy of Ethiopia. Somalia is still fomenting trouble in the disputed Ogaden desert in the south-east corner of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian military Government is also deeply resentful of Sadat's decision to station Egyptian troops in the Sudan’s Kassala Province, very close to the troubled border area with Ethiopia, where Eritrean secessionists have been waging war against Addis Ababa for more than 20 years.

Much of the Nile water originates in the Ethiopian highlands. Apart from the Blue Nile, which is the main tributary, several other important rivers also flow into

the'Nile basin from the Ethiopian . mountains. These include the Sobat in the south-west, and the Atbara, Gash,< Dinder and Tokar. All are vital to Sudanese ' agricultural development.

After his recent rapproachement with the Ethiopian head of State in Khartoum, the Sudanese President has tried to accommodate the Ethiopians over several touchy issues, chiefly those regarding the ending of assistance to the Eritrean secessionist groups and the closure of the border over which supplies and arms used to reach the Eritreans in the front line.

Colonel Mengistu and President Sadat reached the point of threatening war because Sadat would not tolerate any interference from Ethiopia on the Nile question, and Colonel Mengistu objected strongly to Sadat using African water to help the Israelis. ' President Numeiry has tried to reduce the tension by undertaking to increase the yield of water from the Nile complex so that there will be enough to spare, even if the Ethiopians carry out their plan to dam some of the rivers emptying into the Sudan to meet Ethiopia’s own pressing needs to produce more food. President Numeiry’s extra

supply of water in one of the most arid corners of Africa will be produced by the canal now being constructed in Sudan’s Jonglei Province. This will speed up the Nile’s flow, thus preventing

the high rate of evaporation which at present sucks up much of the water in the almost stagnant swamp area of the “sudd,” between Juba and Malakal. The canal project’s first phase is due for completion by 1983.

Much of the water planned to be diverted ' by Ethiopia will eventually flow into the Sudan anyway, because of the nature of the terrain. Ethiopia’s highlands act as a sponge, constantly releas-

ing water downhill intojtfie semi-arid part of south-east-ern Sudan, and theft, through the river system, >to Egypt, and the Mediterranean. — Copyright London Observer Service: