The Blue Nile is a renegade river, according to Sudanese farmer Osman Idris, its unpredictable flooding swallows crops and houses as it crashes through Sudan from Ethiopia on its way to Egypt.<\/p>\n
“Tonight, the level of water will be low,” said Idris, a resident of Juref Gharb, a small village on the bank of the Blue Nile outside Khartoum.<\/p>\n
“Tomorrow, it will swallow all the houses… It’s a renegade river, it rises so fast,” said the 60-year-old, dressed in a traditional Sudanese robe.<\/p>\n
For Idris, Ethiopa’s construction of a controversial dam on the Blue Nile is a dream come true, as it promises to regulate the floods that inundate Sudan every rainy season.<\/p>\n
This year alone, flash flooding has killed more than 60 and injured dozens in Sudan.<\/p>\n
The Blue Nile joins the White Nile in Khartoum and supplies the overwhelming majority of the Nile’s water, which runs through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia insists the $4 billion hydro-electric barrage is essential for its economic growth given that most of its population still lives without electricity.<\/p>\n
And in Sudan, farmers hope the dam will provide predictable flow.<\/p>\n
Over the years, farmers like Idris who own farms along the Nile have been forced to change their crops due to flood devastation and tonnes of deposited silt.<\/p>\n
Brickmakers fire blocks of mud in riverside kilns, producing smoke harmful to crops.<\/p>\n
“I had to shift from cultivating fruits and vegetables to animal feed,” Idris told AFP.<\/p>\n
Being reliant on flooding for irrigation means only one harvest per year and limits the kind of crops that can be grown.<\/p>\n
If the river’s flow were regulated, more intensive agriculture could be practised, Idris said.<\/p>\n
“We can plant crops through the year. It will be better for the environment and for marketing our products, which means more income for us,” Idris said.<\/p>\n
Ekram Dagash, a professor at Khartoum’s Al-Zaiem Al-Azhari University, agreed that Sudan stands to gain from the dam, which will maintain water levels and block unwanted silt.<\/p>\n
“Ethiopia is building the dam for one reason only, to produce electricity and export it, not only to neighbouring countries but to the whole African continent,” she told AFP.<\/p>\n
“The dam will provide Sudan with low cost electricity… and low cost electricity means more growth,” she said.<\/p>\n
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