Fasil Amdetsion is an
    attorney from Ethiopia who
    speaks in riddles. With an
    undergraduate degree from
    Yale in both history and
    international studies, and a
    law degree from Harvard, he
    is a thinker.

    Working with prestigious
    New York law firm Wachtell,
    Lipton, Rosen & Katz, he is
    also a do-er.

One of the things Fasil has done recently is analyzed the legal,
geopolitical, and historical dimensions of the longstanding dispute over
the Nile. He has followed the course of this river from an early age,
growing up in the Nile River basin.

Fasil's task is to get people outside the region to see trouble on the
horizon. He believes there is significant chance of a "water war" along
the Nile basin. The largest question is how volatile it will be -- and
whether it is preventable.

Both necessary and finite, water plays a vital role in food and energy
production, modern transportation, waste disposal, industrial
development, and of course health. Water gave rise to civilization 7,000
years ago -- and sustains it still.

Because of its limited supply, Fasil understands water's crucial
importance to governments and their people. When water is unevenly
distributed, or when it is in needed more than ever as nations develop,
conflicts are sure to arise.

With water's myriad uses and limited nature, coupled with the fact that
it is the quintessential "trans-boundary" resource, it is difficult for
nations to agree upon its distribution and use.

It is unsurprising, Fasil notes, that the English word "rival" is derived
from the Latin word rivalis, a term denoting persons who live on
opposite banks of a river used for irrigation.

    Fasil thinks the Nile basin will be the most likely
    site of a future "water war" because the Nile
    embodies "all the challenges that transnational
    management of fresh water could possibly
    present." The Nile would seem to be a water war
    waiting to happen.

The Nile is long -- over 4,000 miles long. Two countries sharing
anything often equates war. The Nile is shared by ten countries, and
flows through some of the most water-deprived parts of the world.

The region's population is growing at 3% a year and is projected to
reach 859 million in 2025 (up from 245 million in 1990) is likely to
make water even more scarce along the river basin.

One problem is that Sudan and Egypt -- two comparatively non-
contributories -- monopolize the use of the Nile. They claim it all -- and
rely on colonial-era treaties to do so.

In recent years, nations up-river have become more assertive of their
rights. Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia are among the countries that
have begun to construct projects on the Nile.

Despite the occasional conciliatory gesture, however, relations between
the Nile's upriver nations have been dominated by suspicion and, at
times, raw belligerence.

In a sense, Fasil argues, Nile riparian states are behaving like the
proverbial scorpion.

Although these countries have much to gain from cooperation, they
have rigidly pursued divergent paths in a manner that may ultimately be
self-destructive if environmental and population pressures continue to
mount -- which they will.

Fasil criticizes current legal frameworks and political arrangements
governing the Nile's use. He is also critical of a status quo which does
not allow several countries to make use of the Nile for their own
development.

Egypt receives the entirety of the Nile's bounties from others but is
allocated 75% of the Nile's waters, while Ethiopia, from which 85% of
the Nile flows, makes almost no use of the river.

Because of the enormity of interests these two states have at stake, they
have been most vocal in asserting claims and counterclaims that
represent competing upper and lower riparian visions for the Nile's
future utilization

Specifically, Fasil attempts to overcome the quandary the up-river
states find themselves in. He hopes to influence a more comprehensive
approach by grappling with environmental challenges, economic issues,
populist and nationalist imaginations that influence politics, security
interests, and legal arguments.

Fasil's thoughts on this subject are available in a law journal
article published by the University of Texas School of Law,
Texas International Law Journal, Fall 2009, "Scrutinizing the
Scorpion Problematique: Arguments in Favor of the Continued
Relevance of International Law and a Multidisciplinary
Approach to Resolving the Nile Dispute."

                                  Courtesy
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Ethio Quest News
Together We Can Make It!
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A Quest For Unity
"...The African Union (AU)
is an organisation made up of
53 African states."
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Ethiopia's History of
National Resistance for
African Unity & Dignity







PART - ONE
PART - TWO
PART - THREE
The Enduring Food Crisis and Legal
Politics of the Nile.







"While the annual inundations of 'our river' presented
the foundation of one of the most stable and
structured eco-political society of human history in
the lower most reaches and..
More
“Ethiopia has the right to build dams”
"..For several decades, Egypt succeeded in blocking
Ethiopia from raising international project finance
for irrigation and building dams for electricity,
immensely contributing to the perpetuation of cycles
of drought and famine and, hence, abject poverty in
Ethiopia. Moreover, since the days of President
Sadat, Egypt had declared intention to go to war if
Ethiopia built dams on the Nile River. Times
changed and the rapprochement with Sudan
compelled Egypt in 2004 at a trilateral meeting of
Egypt, Ethiopia and the Sudan to recognize for the
first time Ethiopia’s right of use of the water. The
Egyptian declaration came through Mr. Mahmud
Abu Zeid, the Egyptian Minister of Water
Resources, who uttered that famous sentence,
“Ethiopia has the right to build dams.”
Genet Mersha
NILE







(Wikipedia)
" The Abbai portion of the
river is considered holy by
many in Ethiopia, and is
believed to be the Gihon river
mentioned as flowing out of
the Garden of Eden in
Genesis 2.[1] The Abay
portion of the Blue Nile rises
at Lake Tana and flows for
some thirty kilometers before
plunging over the Tis Issat
Falls. The river then loops
across northwest Ethiopia
through a series of deep
valleys and canyons into
Sudan, by which point it is
only known as the Blue Nile.
More
Fasil Amdetsion: On Conflicts Along The Nile

26 May, 2009 | The Huffington Post
A scorpion once tried to cross the river Nile. He approached
several animals, asking if he could ride on their backs. None
of them dared trust him, and they all refused.

Finally, an old sheep agreed because the scorpion said that if
he strung the sheep during the crossing, they would both die.

In the middle of the river, the scorpion struck, and as they
both sank beneath the waves, the sheep cried, "Why?!"

The scorpion said, "I could not do anything else. I am a
scorpion!"
Fasil Amdetsion, Esq. studied at
Harvard and Yale
Read the
Whole
document
Here