LAKE TSANA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 21 May 1936, Page 3

LAKE TSANA

PERIL FROM ITALIANS DISCOUNTED IN BRITAIN The British Government and public have shown no sign of anxiety at the arrival of Italian forces in the Lake Tsana district, slates a London message to the •‘Christian Science Monitor" dated 15th April. Neither have they been greatly impressed by the Italian Government's reiterating past assurances that British and Egyptian rights m respect of the water ol Lake Tsana would be respected under Italian sovereignty. The iact is that —perhaps lortuiiately for Egypt and the Sudan —lialy s assurances arc not necessary. 1 lie worst she could do is to deny permission to construct a reservoir at the southern end of the lake. All authorities agree that she certainly could not divert the water to Eritrea and the Red Sea as lias been suggested. T UNNE LLING EX REN SIVE Major R. E. Cliecsman, former British Consul in Northern Ethiopuia and the first European to travel light around the lake, states that there is 0110 point 011 the west side of the lake from which a tunnel could be driven through the adjacent hills. If this were done, ho says in his book, ‘Lake Tsana and the Blue Nile,” ’ published recently, ‘‘the water would gravitate into Die basin of Die Balas River and join Die Blue Nile not very far 011 the Ethiopian side of the Sudan' frontier. “It was never made very clear by the author of the scheme,” Major Chees. inan adds, “what benefit, if any, would he derived from such ail expensive undertaking.” A glance at any map of Ethiopia shows that between Lake Tsana and Eritrea are the deep gorges of the l’akkaze and Mareb, both of which arctributaries of the Nile. The Italians would have to take the Tsana watci down one sklc and up the other of these and perform other unusual engineering leafs before they could manoeuvre the water of Lake Tsana into a position from which they might start forcing it up the sterile valleys of Eritrea, most of which also drain into the Nile.

OTHER SOURCES Moreover, it is not the case that all, or even nearly all, of the water that flows down the Blue Nile comes from Lake Tsana. During the flood season, only a small proportion is supplied by the lake. After the Abbni, as the Ethiopians call it, leaves the lake, it drops into a i-oi-(t 0 the sides oi which are seldom fess than 2000 feet high. Into this gorge which makes a semicircle of 470 miles southward and then westward, drains the water from half the Ethiopian Highlands. Major Cheesman, the only European who has explored the whole course ol the ‘river between the lake and the Sudanese frontier, states that several large perennial tributaries such as the Bir Didessa and the Tamclia, join the Blue Nile in this stretch as well as oilier rivers like the Mugr and Gudr which though dry during the winter become wide streams during the wet season. OTHERS WATER- THE SUDAN Moreover, in addition to the Blue Nile itself, there are the Hinder, the Ealiad and the Atbara which also drain large areas of Ethiopia and carry huge quantifies of water direct to the Sudan dating the summer months. “ If Italy owned Lake Tsana she could, as Ethiopia has done in the past, obstruct the building of the dam by which the waters of the lake itself could Ee| conserved for the benefit of Egyptian and Sudanese peasants, Even so, there are, according to Major Cheesman, at least two other possible sites for dame further down the river. The purpose of the proposed dam is to hold hack some of the flood water of Lake Tsana- with a view to its release in the wintering and spring when the Nile is low. The proposition is one which is solely for the benefit of Egypt and the Sudan, for there are no parts of the Blue Nile gorge which are suitable for irrigation, although the valley is sometimes as much as 12 miles across. DAM SURVEYED Lake Tsana has been surveyed oil several occasions with a view to the construction of this dam. The first time was as far back as 1902 by an English engineer acting on behalf of the Egyptian Government. The last was in i. 933 when Major L. B. Roberts of the J. G White Corporation of New York was acting for the Ethiopian Government and in rlie interests of the Government of Egypt. So far nothing has been done except settle a possible silo for the dam itseil and map out a. possible route lor a motor road to bring supplies from the Sudan frontier. The Egyptian Government has voted sums to carry out the necessary work, hut no attempt is to be made to start operations until the political horizon is cleared. Around Lake Tsana, and on its islands are situated a number, of ancient churches and monasteries with histories dating back many hundreds of years. The district is more or.less of a by-wat-er and lias escaped most of the fighting which has gone on intermittently throughout Ethiopia since the beginning of history. Major Cliecsman found that the monks had among their treasures many unique manuscripts and relics, some of which dated hack to the second century of the Christian era.