Ethiopia Egypt Nile conflict: The consideration of both countries and the root of civilization.

In July 2020, Ethiopia complets the construction of the Grand renaissance dam and starts filling the Dam. This dam is meant to provide the urgently needed electricity for a country that has one of the fastest growing economy in the world. The economic growth of Ethiopia averages 9.8% a year from 2008/09 to 2018/19. However, only about 45% pf the total population has access to electricity use and the electricity grid is very unstable which is a big burden from economic development. Out of all of the ways to produce electricity, the most efficient and productive way is to use water. However, this act has sparked a wave of discontent and anger from the downstream countries like Egypt and Sudan.

Nile River is the lifeline of eastern Africa. It is the only major waterway that runs South to North on this planet. The nile river is the combination of the blue nile and the white nile. Among the two, the Blue nile is the main source of water. It supplies about 80% of the water of the nile river in rain season which marked its importance.

The Nile river has played a crucial role in the history of the world. It is the river that sustained the Ancient Egyptian civilization, the civilization which is one of the most ancient civilization in the history of the world. Overtime, The Nile has been the star of civilization in the darkness of the Saharan desert in Northern Africa. The wealth of the Nile has long benefited the countries that process it including the Roman empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Arabic empire, etc. The Nile river has been playing its important role even now with the Aswan dam in the river sustaining the electricity while almost all of Egypt concentrating to the Nile. The Nile river and its valuable water and electricity resources is the lifeline of Egypt while all other places in the country are Saharan desert area that is unsuited to do any agriculture while only able to sustain tribal population and communities. We could thus see that the Nile river is the lifeline of Egypt four thousands of years.

However, there is also a country in the upstream area of the Nile that is experiencing great amount of economic growth and is being more and more active in world stage. The country is Ethiopia. The blue Nile originated in Ethiopia which means that Ethiopia have procession to 80% of the lifeline of Egypt in rainy season. However, Ethiopia actually does not need the Nile as its precipitation level averaged 68.03mm from 1901 until 2015 which is weigh higher than the precipitation of Egypt which nears 18mm in Cairo which is in the Nile river delta. Places outside the influence of the Nile river have almost no rainfall for one year. Ethiopia also has a vast amount of mountains which contain valuable resources of spring water. However, although it seems like Ethiopia don't need as much Nile as Egypt, Nile river to Ethiopia is also a valuable resource. The Aswan dam generates enormous electricity power. The electricity that the Aswan dam generates every year is able to power one million television for 20 years straight. The enormous amount of electricity that the Aswan dam created is one of the key factors that sustained Egypt in its place as one of the regional power in the bloody battlefield of Middle East. Ethiopia is a highly developing economy with its GDOP growth reaching 9% in 2019. Nowadays, almost all economic activities require large amount of electricity consumption including the financial sector and the IT sector. However, the percentage of people able to use electricity is only about 45% which is a heavy burden to further development of Ethiopia. However, the construction of the Grand renaissance dam of Ethiopia is able to alleviate or even solve the problem. The planned amount of power generation is 16,153 GWH which makes it the seventh biggest Hydroelectricity power plant in the world. The electricity that the dam generates is able to act as a stabilizing backbone of Ethiopia's national grid as well as supporting national wide development. The surplus electricity that the dam generates would also be exported to other African countries with similar problem of lacking electricity supply which is able to export not only electricity but also diplomatic influence and hole other countries electricity source which could make a lot of Ethiopian puppet state.

Another important factor is Ethiopia's internal strife. The modern day Ethiopia is a country forcefully combined by European diplomats. There are ten different major nationalities that have never been together in history before. These nationalities form a big disintegration force in Ethiopia with each states able to ignore policy of the central government. An example of that would be the Tigray state which is itself an own political fraction that holds local elections in defiance to the policy of central government to cancel elections due to COVID-19. Oftentimes, these nationalities and their own political fraction is able to influence the politics of Ethiopian central government while doing diplomatic activities them self. Overall, there is no national identity in Ethiopia. The only thing Ethiopians belief is the fate of their own nationality. This can be reflected in the Tigrayan war in November 2020 where the state of Tigray held an attempted disintegration attempt against the government led by PM Abiy Ahmed which uncovered another fact which is that some very strong nationalities even have their military forces. With that in mind, a dam construction would be a great tool to unite the country under one common goal which is development and organize an Ethiopian "national identity." which is able to encourage solidarity in Ethiopia.

(source from Wikipedia)

Overall, the problem still concentrates on the root of human civilization which is habitable land. Humans have long prospered in lands where they find most suitable for their agriculture ever since the time they advanced from the hunter gatherer communities. The only way of production that is able to sustain early human community is agriculture which gives us a sustainable food supply which allows us to have more time and resources to use our clever mind to develop civilization. The most important factor of agriculture is water which is able to irrigate our crops which is why a lot of cities in the world are located in rivers, lakes, and coastlines. The most important reason of Egypt's strong opposition of the project is that water resources which is crucial for agriculture and the health of Egyptians.