Flood water in front of Renaissance Dam will not affect Egypt’s water security level: statement.
“The Blue Nile flood is known to last from June until the end of September each year.
The river receives great inflow of water and then later on in the year the flow drops,” Hossam al-Imam, spokesperson for the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said in a statement.
He reiterated that the quantities of water present in that lake do not represent any damage to Egypt’s water quota.
Egypt fears the dam will affect its historic Nile water share of 55 billion square meters, which it has had access to since the historic 1959 agreement with Sudan.
The dam is expected to be ready in 2017.
Ethiopians see it as is a great national project and a means of overcoming poverty.
Earlier in June, the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Ministry official spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid asserted that Egypt’s water security is non-negotiable, saying that it is considered a red line that no one can approach.
When completed, the dam will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa, and one of the largest of its kind in the world.
According to global calculators of water scarcity, Egypt is already classified as being a water-stressed country, while Ethiopia is classified as being on the brink of water stress.

Dams and irrigation schemes have benefited the world’s people But downstream populations have often suffered reduced water availability About 20 per cent saw an increase in water while 24 per cent saw a decrease [NEW YORK] Reservoirs, dams and irrigation systems have increased water availability for much of the global population, but they have also created scarcity in many places downstream, a new study suggests.
The researchers found a significant portion of the population either benefitting or losing when it comes to the availability of freshwater resources.
The system approach, according to the researchers, allowed them to come up with an estimate that is more realistic than previous approaches, and which also shows greater water scarcity than previous estimates.
On average, approximately 20 per cent of the global population has experienced a significant increase in water availability, says Veldkamp.
But, it’s not so straightforward.
Seasonal changes in precipitation and water storage make it difficult for modellers to estimate water availability and impacts of interventions,” says Veldkamp, adding that the effects of climate change can be “difficult to tease out from other impacts like human activities.” Veldkamp says the bottom line of the study is that “human interventions — the total package of irrigation activities and water withdrawals for domestic and industrial purposes, land use and land cover changes, and dam and reservoir operations — drastically change the critical dimensions of water scarcity.” “Downstream decision-makers have the responsibility to look up.
In an ideal case, both players would try to optimise (together) their stakes and come to an optimal allocation of fresh water resources that serves their collective needs best,” he says.
“The study is an excellent example on how fast growing global data availability can help to understand the potential upstream – downstream conflicts in data-poor regions, such as large parts of Africa and Asia,” says Matti Kummu, professor at the Water and Development Research Group, Aalto University, Finland.
“National and international (in case of transboundary river basins) river basin organisations can use the results to have objective, scientific knowledge of the potential impacts of upstream water use to better negotiate treaties between the interest groups,” adds Kummu.
This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Asia & Pacific desk.

Water level dips in major reservoirs in Vellore.
After the water level in the Rajathoppu reservoir hit the zero mark, officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) say the present water situation in the two other reservoirs – Mordhana Dam near Gudiyatham and Andiappanur Odai near Tirupattur — and 519 tanks maintained by the department across the district is extremely poor.
According to the PWD, Rajathoppu reservoir, with its total storage capacity of 20.52 mcft of water has nil water as on June 27.
Mordhana Dam has 47.34 mcft of water as against its total storage capacity of 261.36 mcft, while Andiappanur Odai, which has a total capacity of 112.20 mcft, has 14.23 mcft of water as of now.
“Many of these tanks have only about 10% water of the total storage capacity.
The water level in majority of the water bodies is poor, and we are waiting for the northeast monsoon to end the crisis,” an official said.
The rains had also helped recharge more than 350 of the 519 tanks then.
This included one of the biggest tanks in the district — Sadupperi — that reached its full storage capacity.
“Farmers are facing acute water scarcity, and agriculture has taken a beating.
There is no water even after digging for 1,200 feet for sinking a borewell in Ambur Taluk.

Nairobians to go thirsty as water rationing intensifies.
By STELLAR MURUMBA Nairobi residents will continue to spend more on water as the utility provider signalled increased rationing after the levels at main reservoir Ndakaini Dam dropped to an all-time low.
Intensified rationing of the commodity by the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) will see households dig deeper into their pockets as they seek expensive water from private vendors.
Vendors charge Sh20 or higher for 20 litres of water or 0.02 cubic meters, reaping a huge profit from the supply shortage.
This is steep compared to the Sh53 per 1,000 litres that NCWSC charges households.
“This has been necessitated by the below average rainfall experienced in the short and long rains of 2016 and 2017 respectively.” The company started rationing water in January due to depressed water levels at the Ndakaini dam in Murang’a County – the capital city’s main water source.
It was expected that long rains starting late March would lift water levels at the dams and ease the rationing.
However, the heavy rains have delayed and left around 2.7 million people in need of food aid after a dry spell in October and November.
A new dam is being built in Muranga to feed Nairobi’s growing population with water and cut reliance on Ndakaini.
Water scarcity last month forced flower firm, Primarosa Flowers, to stop operations at its Athi-River base and relocate to its Nyahururu farm.

For more than six months, despite recent rainfall, the Savannah River basin and counties on both sides of the river have struggled through drought status.
The Georgia Environmental Protection Department and the U.S. Drought Monitor currently list Richmond and Columbia counties in level 1 drought status, and counties up river have been listed in higher categories since earlier this year.
Birdwell said the current drought contingency plan has different thresholds to initiate water flow control from the dams at Lake Hartwell and Thurmond Lake.
Current lake levels are low enough that the Corps is in what they call trigger level two.
While tributaries below the dam help flow rates downstream, industry and municipalities depend on the water for production and clean drinking water.
The Corps studied several different contingencies, including a “no action” plan.
“The flow will change downstream as we reduce the water flow, which it does now anyway,” Birdwell said.
Birdwell noted two dams on the river, the hydroelectric dam at Steven’s Creek and the New Savannah River Bluff Lock and Dam, are pass through dams.
“The water flowing into those dams flows right back out.
Birdwell said the new plan to conserve water sooner than the current plan allows would be beneficial to residents and would maintain a steadier flow throughout times of drought.

Nairobians to go thirsty for more days as taps run dry.
Nairobi residents will continue to spend more on water as the utility provider signalled increased rationing after the levels at main reservoir Ndakaini Dam dropped to an all-time low.
Intensified rationing of the commodity by the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) will see households dig deeper into their pockets as they seek expensive water from private vendors.
Vendors charge Sh20 or higher for 20 litres of water or 0.02 cubic meters, reaping a huge profit from the supply shortage.
This is steep compared to the Sh53 per 1,000 litres that NCWSC charges households.
“The company has further reviewed equitable water distribution programme for the city and its environs,” said NCWSC.
“This has been necessitated by the below average rainfall experienced in the short and long rains of 2016 and 2017 respectively.” The company started rationing water in January due to depressed water levels at the Ndakaini dam in Murang’a County – the capital city’s main water source.
However, the heavy rains have delayed and left around 2.7 million people in need of food aid after a dry spell in October and November.
A new dam is being built in Muranga to feed Nairobi’s growing population with water and cut reliance on Ndakaini.
Water scarcity last month forced flower firm, Primarosa Flowers, to stop operations at its Athi-River base and relocate to its Nyahururu farm.

Much has been written about the building of hydropower dams in the upper reaches of the Mekong River and their role in causing droughts in the Mekong delta region in Vietnam.
The drought also had major economic, social and environmental impacts as it severely affected Vietnam’s coffee, rice and shrimp production and exports.
Last year’s El Nino-induced drought seriously reduced robusta coffee production in the central highlands and rice yields in the delta region.
But it can take steps to make agricultural practices more water-efficient.
As for the construction of hydropower dams by China, which many claim has been solely responsible for reduced water availability in the Mekong delta region, we must realise that demand for electricity and water in Mekong countries – China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam – is increasing steadily.
But will the push for hydropower cause more droughts in Vietnam?
After electricity is generated, water is discharged into the river.
This is to say, if dams are built only to generate electricity in the upper reaches of the Mekong and its tributaries in China, Laos and Thailand, they are unlikely to reduce the flow of water in the delta in the dry season.
So the riparian countries should urgently work on a coordinated and sustainable development plan for the Mekong region so as to realise the full potential of the river’s system.
Cecilia Tortajada is a senior research fellow at Institute of Water Policy at the same school, and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Water Resources Development.

Michael Reinhard/Corbis/Getty Dams are supposed to collect water from rivers and redistribute it to alleviate water shortages, right?
Not so fast.
It turns out that in most cases they actually create water scarcity, especially for people living downstream.
Almost a quarter of the global population experiences significant decreases in water availability through human interventions on rivers, says Ted Veldkamp at Vrije University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
They used this to assess water scarcity between 1971 and 2010, so they could identify the hydrological winners and losers from dam interventions.
Learn more at New Scientist Live in London from 28 September to 1 October: Come see our talk on geoengineering – the idea that we can intervene in the climate on a massive scale to reduce the effects of global warming The world has spent an estimated $2 trillion on dams in recent decades.
But Veldkamp’s startling conclusion is that the activity has left 23 per cent of the global population with less water, compared with only 20 per cent who have gained.
“Water scarcity is rapidly increasing in many regions,” says Veldkamp.
Under pressure Many nations see dams as an important way to fight climate change – both by diverting water to alleviate shortages and by generating low-carbon hydroelectricity to replace power stations that burn fossil fuel.
Building more dams “might mitigate tomorrow’s climate change impacts for a certain group of people whilst putting others under pressure today,” she says.

A WARKWORTH explosives company has been fined $460,000 after five cattle died – including a pregnant cow that aborted a dead calf – when toxic wastewater entered a farm dam. Dyno Nobel was convicted of a water pollution offence and breaching its licence after several failures in January, 2015 led to chemical-laden wastewater leaving two holding dams at its Warkworth site and flowing beneath a road before entering a nearby farm dam and stopping 200 metres from the Hunter River. The company, which was founded by Alfred Nobel who later gave his name to the Nobel Prize, entered guilty pleas during a NSW Land and Environment Court hearing after action by the NSW Environment Protection Authority. The court heard a farmer moved between 60 and 80 mainly pregnant cattle on to a paddock next to the Warkworth Dyno Nobel site that he had leased since 2009. He moved the cattle on February 20, 2015 and returned four days later. The farm dam was the only source of water within the leased paddock area. The court heard when the farmer returned four days later five cattle were dead, and one of the dead cows had partly aborted its calf which was also dead. “The dead cattle…

President Moon Jae-in’s move to reverse the effects of a controversial damming and dredging project has run into an unexpected snag: South Korea may be entering one of the most severe droughts in decades.
The water levels of the dammed pools will gradually drop by 2-3 centimeters per hour from 2 p.m. on Thursday, officials from the environment and land ministries said in a joint press briefing Monday.
Some experts and farmers expressed concerns that the timing could not be more wrong.
As of the end of May, the country saw an accumulated precipitation of 161.1 milliliters, only half the usual level of 292.7 mm.
“The release of water from only six dammed pools and lowering the water level by up to 1.25 meters will do very little to improve the water quality or remove algae,” the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements said in a statement.
Along with the immediate release of water from the dammed pools, Moon ordered the execution of a drought countermeasure plan in advance.
“Drought countermeasures must not be a temporary plan, but should fundamentally tackle the serious drought problem here,” Moon was quoted as saying.
When rice planting season ends, the government will further lower the water level by 50-100 centimeters in October and open all dammed pools to the lowest limit by the end of 2018, Cheong Wa Dae said.
“In an effort to restore the environment in the rivers through a comprehensive and considerate analysis, the opening of another 10 pools will be decided depending on the outcome of future studies on their impact on the ecosystem,” said Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Soo-hyun.
Cheong Wa Dae said ministries and a related task force will monitor water levels to effectively deal with problems following the opening of dams.