DAMNATIONS

When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water. ~ Ben Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac  1733

Water is perhaps the most essential ingredient for life on Earth. Nevertheless, we humans have never learned how to share it. Although the Earth is literally bathed in water, only 0.5% of the planet’s water is accessible fresh water; hence the challenges of apportioning it.
     Shared riparian water-rights are rarely non-disputed, especially when it comes to dams. This website lists over 700 individual water-related disputes of various sorts around the world, including military ones, since the end of WWII. The website’s beginning dispute happened around 3000 BCE.

Beavers have been building dams for millions of years, humans for a much shorter, but substantial period. A dam, whether built by beavers or humans, restricts and retains the flow of riparian water and forms a reservoir behind it. The stored water in dams’ reservoirs can be used to contain floods, as well as provide water for irrigation, navigability, human consumption and power production. The world’s first hydroelectric power plant began generating electricity in Wisconsin in 1882.

One of the earliest human-built dams is the Sadd el-Kafara (the Dam of the Infidels). It was built by ancient Egyptians for flood control on Wadi al-Garawi – south of Cairo – around 2950-2750 BCE. Alas, it was destroyed by a flood before it could be completed. Settled-agriculture, which was already well established in and around Mesopotamia by then, augmented humanity’s needs for water management and storage.

We haven’t let that initial tragedy at Sadd el-Kafara blunt our building as there are now about 57,000 large dams worldwide. Virtually every country is a damnation. These dams’ reservoirs cover more than 154,000 square miles – roughly the area of California. Speaking of which, there are over 1,400 named dams and 1,300 named reservoirs just in the Golden State. The largest dam in California, the Oroville Dam, is the 8th biggest dam in the world (by volume of fill/structure) and the tallest in the US (770ft.).

An African dam now being built has captured the media’s attention, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Ethiopia started construction nine years ago of its GERD on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile river. About 85% of the Nile’s water is sourced in Ethiopia. The dam’s site is situated just 9 miles east of the Ethiopia-Sudan border.

When operating with a full reservoir, its 6.45-gigawatt electricity capacity means this dam will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa, as well as the eight largest in the world (by capacity), right behind the US Grand Coulee Dam. It will more than double Ethiopia’s electricity output and make a significant contribution to Ethiopia’s further development. The majority of Ethiopians do not have any access to electricity.

The GERD represents case #797 (and counting) of fluid, multi-society water-usage antagonism. The dam is now producing some power, although it’s only about 70% complete. Nevertheless the GERD has already generated a great deal of rancor between Ethiopia and its two neighboring, Nile River basin nations; Sudan and its far more powerful downstream neighbor, Egypt. Thus, the GERD’s three damnations are Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. Each has an unsurprisingly distinct position regarding the dam.

Ethiopia ($858 GDP/capita[1]) wants to fill the reservoir as fast as practical so the nation can start earning a return on its nearly $5 billion investment. Its government hopes the GERD will raise Ethiopia out of poverty.

Egypt ($3,202 GDP/capita) argues the dam represents an indisputable national threat because it relies on the Nile for 90% of its heavily-subsidized fresh water. It fears the GERDs restrictions on downstream water, especially during droughts, will reduce its water availability and waterflow into its Aswan High Dam, 900 miles downstream. Egypt wants Ethiopia to fill the GERDs reservoir gradually and release water so the river’s flow isn’t much altered. Because the Nile and Egypt have been closely-intertwined throughout its multi-millennia history, Egyptians believe the Nile and its water is their birthright.

Sudan ($442 GDP/capita), although it supports the GERD and will receive some of its inexpensive electricity, it is concerned that any of the GERD’s un-coordinated water releases could overwhelm its own Roseires Dam, 140 miles downstream. Sudan demands predictable GERD water flows so it can grow more food for its starving, vulnerable population.

According to reports, these three damnations have reached agreement for 90% of a deal; that remaining 10% will likely take labored conciliations on each nation’s part. Water is sometimes thicker than political blood. Meanwhile Ethiopia is soon scheduled to start filling the GERD’s reservoir.

     Much closer to home, one long-standing domestic and international water dispute involves Mexico and the seven (7) US states that comprise the heavily-dammed Colorado River basin. California’s “water wars” have been on-going for over a century. A commission was established in 1884 between Mexico and the US to oversee the flow of the river’s water from the United States through Mexico into the Gulf of California. Sixty (60) years later, the Commission negotiated a US-Mexico multi-river treaty for the two nations’ water usage.

     California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming – the Colorado River basin’s US states – continue to negotiate among themselves because Southern California takes more water than it is entitled to under the Law of the River. One enduring, intra-California water dispute involves Southern California again making waves by demanding an ever-larger portion of Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water. The Southies want water shipped to Los Angeles via the 700-mile California Aqueduct. Predictably, Northern Californians are unwilling to accede to such ultimatums.

And it started with the Dam of the Infidels five thousand years ago. Onward…

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[1] These nominal GDP per capita numbers are for 2019, according to the World Bank.