To: Egyptian politicians and media.
This is 21st Century don’t think on the 19th century .Now we can do twice GERD project . Please Visit Ethiopia
and see the unbelievable development. WE DON’T NEED ANY SUPPORT FROM ANY COUNTRY .

Tell Them!

They are growing food for Saudi Arabians on giant for profit mega-farms leased from Ethiopia.

So there is NO loyalty to test between SA, UAE and Ethiopia, because the investments are pure business deals designed to provide profit for both sides.

One of the big crops SA investments is keen on growing is rice, the most water intensive farmed crop in the world for which they have already been using water from near the Elewero irrigation dam,built by Russian engineers during the socialist era 10,000 hectares of land they leased for 60 years.

The rich irony the over confident writer of this piece misses is one reason the dam is being built is to ensure water for those crops grown for SA and UAE.

The need to generate electricity is the official reason of course, and it is to divert the focus from the most likely reason Ethiopia is adamant about building the dam.

If Arabs knew the truth behind the excuses, they’d realize it’s SA and UAE who are betraying their Arab brothers in order to grow food for their own people.

The Saudi investors know to bring all the farmland they will eventually have under lease up to full production will require far more water than little irrigation dams built on Nile tributaries can provide.

To ensure they have enough water they need the giant dam along with its power generating abilities in order to send that water to the places it needs to go up river from the huge lake it would create.

That’s important even in Ethiopia, because as blessed as they are with rainfall, drought can happen there too. Should that happen then Saudis and UAE would be in crisis

If the writer of this piece had done a little investigation they would have realized just how idiotic they made themselves look by suggesting Saudi Arabia might teach Ethiopia its place by withdrawing their investments as if they are gifts from the kingdom rather than investments made for the same business reasons the world over self-interest.

To threaten to withdraw it to teach Ethiopia its place would be self-defeating.

Rather than talking down to Ethiopia as the writer of this piece does, maybe he should expound on the other nearby inexpensive options Saudi Arabia has to grow that food elsewhere show Ethiopia its place?

Oh wait don’t bother.

Ethiopia is unique in the region.

Thanks to sitting on a plateau over a mile above sea level it is blessed with large areas of well watered fertile farming land.

It is surrounded by arid or desert regions, because were it not for that plateau Ethiopia would be a big desert too.

The only other place close to this region is the Yemen Highlands, but they have no land to spare, because they are busy using 90% of it to grow KAT, and one of the largest populations of any Arab country use the other 10% to grow basic foodstuffs to feed their own people..

So to think they will do much more than talk is to be blind to the reality that Egypt faces and why.

When it comes to water, Egypt has no native supplies.

To think SA and UAE are going to help when it means they would have to give up their dreams of turning the lands they leased in Ethiopia into food security for both of them is ludicrous.

More to the point, those two nations are the last ones who would feel pity for Egypt for they don’t even have a river to call their own.

Rather than telling Ethiopia not to build dams, I imagine the outcome will be Saudi investors offering to build massive desalination plants for Egypt as well as surreptitiously suggesting Egypt tap into the fossil water found nearby but over the border.