Posted on 06/10/2013 6:30:03 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
Egypt's president on Monday hardened his stance against Ethiopia and its construction of a Nile dam, warning that "all options are open" in dealing with the project that threatens to leave Egypt with a dangerous water shortage.
Speaking in a live televised speech before hundreds of supporters, Mohammed Morsi said Egypt is not calling for war, but it is willing to confront any threats to its water security.
"If it loses one drop, our blood is the alternative," he said to a raucous crowd of largely Islamist supporters that erupted into a standing ovation.
...
In the conference hall where Morsi delivered his speech, some of his supporters chanted slogans against Israel and accused it of colluding with Ethiopia to harm Egypt. Blaming Israel for Egypt's problems is common here. Israel denied any connection to the construction of the dam.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Question for the engineeringly challenged.
If the Ethiopians build a dam and the lake fills up doesn’t the flow of the river then remain the same?
Any damage to Ethiopia will be laid to the Obama Administration’s charge. Kerry seemed to think it was such a cool thing to “quietly” slip Egypt another $1.3 billion just this week.
Well,whaddya know...our Community Organizer-In-Chief,in an effort to promote world peace and harmony,backed a filthy,lousy,stinking 9th Century pig fornicating terrorist to lead Egypt.
Ethiopians plan to use a bunch of water to irrigate. A radio show said that Egypt might only get 25% of what they had been getting.
Once the lake is filled, the flow of the river should return to normal.
Egypt has been armed by the United States and fed by France. They have the largest standing army in Africa. They can expect support from their fellow Muslims in the area. Ethiopia is poor, largely Christian and has chronic famine. Their army is antiquated. Egypt had better be very careful.
If the leaders of Egypt think that dams do bad things to the Nile they need to bomb the Aswan high dam.
Depending on the size of the man-made lake, technically correct. However, it could take an entire year...and it might reduce the water flow by a third to even make it after twelve months. I have yet to see a map of the lake they intend to create behind that dam.
What the Egyptians can’t allow is river traffic to be screwed up in this one or two year period of the lake filling. The other thing is that the level of the Ethiopia lake is of concern, on a year by year basis. The Nile has been “owned” by the Egyptians for ten thousand years. This would radically change their view of things.
You dam the river so that you can use the water - for irrigation and other things that ultimately significantly reduce the flow.
There is a minor loss for evaporation (I actually had to apply for a water right for evaporation on a pond once).
But this would also give the Ethiopians a degree of control. Some on this thread are assuming that thelake level would be static...but that is not necessarily true on large reservoir projects. The keepers of the dam would have the ability to manipulate the flow rate out of the primary tubes...and if its dry and the lake level is dropping, they will most certainly shut off the tubes...and a large reservoir can store quite a bit of water when this happens.
In this country, there have been similar disagreements among states. My state, Kansas, in particular has sued Colorado and Nebrask to release more water. I think we have prevailed against Nebraska...but they are disobeying the ruling for the time being.
This could get very interesting...but I don’t see it written anywhere that on Egypt can irrigate out of the Nile(basin).
Not necessarily. The large reservoirs in this country have a tremendous amount of storage available, for flood control. If Ethiopia wanted, they could restrict flow for months...and then open the gates and send a flood wave downstream.
Much more likely...drought hits, the lake level drops, and Ethiopia shuts off the primary discharge tubes. Egypt is out of luck in this situation...and it just makes their drought worse.
Not exactly.
There is the lesson of Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado, which significantly reduced the average flow of the river.
In a dry climate, evaporation from the lake surface can be significant.
If the rock bordering the lake is porous, a significant amount of water can be bled off and stored in the rock.
If the reservoir is used to store water for irrigation purposes, a significant amount of water can be bled off into the ground water -- which might eventually find its way downstream...or it might not.
The opposite case to Glen Canyon is found in the Snake River Valley of Idaho -- where the impoundments provide irrigation water for irrigation of potato crops. Personally, I've never seen such intense irrigation as is practiced on the potato crop in Idaho.
However, the underlying rock is igneous and non-porous. As a consequence, virtually all the water employed in irrigation finds its way downstream and back into the river.
So... Egypt is going to blame Israel if Ethiopia builds a dam on the Nile (even though Egypt has a DAM already on the Nile) because.... the Nile is NOWHERE NEAR Israel at all ?
You’ve got it.
In the conference hall where Morsi delivered his speech, some of his supporters chanted slogans against Israel and accused it of colluding with Ethiopia to harm Egypt. Blaming Israel for Egypt's problems is common here. Israel denied any connection to the construction of the dam.
Well, heck. If it wasn't Bush's fault, it's got to be "anthropogenic global warming."
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