Selling water in the sources of the Nile is an illusion or a reality. How will Egypt be affected?

Cairo- "Pay in advance to get water. The installation of a prepaid water meter is compulsory." In this way, the instructions of the Greater Cairo Water Company shocked Hamed Abul-Magd, a farmer in the Warraq area, which lies in the lap of the Nile River.

Abu al-Magd stood surprised at the door of his house, which he built randomly (without a license) in his agricultural land, which hugs the Nile Giza, and said to Al Jazeera Net, wondering, "Does the government cut off our water if we do not ship the prepaid card?" "The agricultural land will soon be turned," he added.

The simple farmer knows nothing about the World Bank's orientation towards what is known as "commodification of water", and turning it into a commodity for those who pay, so that it is displayed on international stock exchanges like anything sold and bought.

But he came to the same conclusion as a paper by Dr. Muhammad Hafiz, a professor of dam and mud coast engineering at the National University of Tanagha in Malaysia.

Agreements with several African countries with the aim of constructing dams to collect and sell water (Al Jazeera)

Schemes for the sale of river water

Hafez tells Al Jazeera Net that the World Bank launched the principle of "commodification of water", while Kenya and Britain moved on the ground through an agreement signed in May to complete 3 dams, the most important of which is the dam "Great Waterfall", with the aim of selling water. According to the researcher, this dam will be the first African model to apply the principle of selling river water.

The research paper also indicates that the Egyptian-Ethiopian negotiations on the Renaissance Dam touched - at one stage and through intermediaries - with a proposal, under which Egypt would buy the water it needs from the Ethiopian side at preferential prices.

Hafez also pointed out that China recently signed a similar agreement with South Sudan to establish a water bank after the diversion of the White Nile, with the participation of Kenya, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.

The establishment of the African Water Bank aims to build a number of dams in those countries, with the aim of selling water to the downstream country and to whomever requests.

In this context, the paper expects China to start building a hydroelectric dam on one of the tributaries of the White Nile in South Sudan, to store 15 billion cubic meters of water, as part of a package of dams that will be built successively on the tributaries of the White Nile heading to the State of Sudan and then to Egypt.

She also talks about China's growing influence in the utilities and infrastructure sector in African countries to fill the vacuum left by the United States, explaining that this is in line with the agenda and directions of the World Bank, which has an original orientation in "water commodification."

Old "conspiracy"

Former Egyptian Minister of Irrigation Nasr Allam puts the issue in the context of what he calls "old conspiracies" on Egypt's waters, which have not stopped since the fifties of the last century, as he says in a post on his Facebook page.

Allam points out that the World Bank, which is currently promoting the commodification of water, tried to incapacitate Egypt when the High Dam project began. The former minister accused unnamed Western powers of seeking to make the "Entebbe Agreement scheme" a success with the aim of redividing the shares of the Nile waters, "in an adventure that lasted more than 10 years," considering the Ethiopian dam an explicit attempt in this direction.

He warned that dams that are built without clear and binding international legal agreements to fill and operate them, are relatively easy to change their functions, which may cause severe damage to neighboring countries, "a country should not allow itself to have its development projects at the expense of the lives of other neighboring peoples and sharing the same water resource."

Primacy of political approaches

Gamal Abdel Aal, a professor of irrigation engineering at Fayoum University, said that the entry of the IMF and the World Bank on the line of so-called development in many African countries has changed the features and plans for water use, so upstream countries began planning to make the most of rivers even if at the expense of downstream countries, and accused the World Bank of giving priority to "political approaches" at the expense of the interests of countries and peoples.

Contrary to international law, which stipulates the principle of equitable use and non-harm, the World Bank's call for water commodification has been launched since 1993, according to Abdel Aal, who points out that grants and loans are linked to the commitment of countries to new policies.

Ali Jameel, a professor of international relations, believes that the water crisis does not affect Egypt and Sudan only, noting that the rivers of Iraq and Somalia suffer for the same reason.

Jameel told Al Jazeera Net that subjecting the lifeblood of buying and selling on global stock exchanges is an unprecedented idea in the history of international water relations, and there is no bilateral or multilateral treaty in this regard. He called on Arab countries to deal decisively and intelligently with these plans, which may soon be implemented, and warned, "It may become the right of everyone in the world, in Europe and Israel, for example, to buy what was once the right of Egyptians in water."

In this context, the Egyptian academic talks about what he described as the miserable future of the water crisis if things go as they are and without a radical solution, considering that the most important goal of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is to deliver water to Israel by buying and selling, and Egyptian lands will be "just a crossing."

"We may get a right or a fee from crossing the water after we become just a facility for that," he said. He stated that the adoption of the principle of international commodification of water means that Israel has the right to buy water from Ethiopia, and "Egypt must deliver it."

Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is Egyptians' biggest fear of declining stake in the Nile (Reuters)

Ethiopia's intentions

While fears are growing about the repercussions of the Renaissance Dam and its negative effects on the lives of Egyptians, Abbas Sharaki, a professor of water resources at Cairo University, confirms that Egypt has often declared that it is not against development in Ethiopia or any other country, provided that it does not harm others, explaining that the construction of the Julius Nyerere Dam in Tanzania is a witness to this, and before it many projects such as the Owen Dam in Uganda in 1953.

Sharaki believes in statements to local newspapers that the Arab League's position in support of Egypt and Sudan was necessary, considering that Addis Ababa did not take into account the concerns of Cairo and Khartoum during the three previous filling of the Renaissance Dam. Ethiopia should use water to produce electricity without affecting the river's natural flows, except by consensus between the two downstream countries affected by any shortages, he said.

Despite Ethiopia's clear intentions, according to journalist and irrigation researcher Asma Yahya, Egypt has not dealt with the crisis in proportion to its gravity.

Asma explains to Al Jazeera Net, saying, "It has been proven to Cairo that the Renaissance Dam is not only for energy, but to establish the largest water bank in the world," and warns that Egypt may find itself forced to buy the water it needs for drinking and agriculture, explaining that the cost of desalination of seawater and sewage treatment will be very high and will not provide the required.

Costly desalination

According to data from the Egyptian Ministry of Housing, the total number of desalination plants currently in existence reaches 60 in the governorates of North and South Sinai, the Red Sea, Matrouh and Ismailia.

The total capacity of desalination plants is about 1.7 million cubic meters of water per day, representing about 6% of the total current consumption of drinking water.

Irrigation researcher Asma Yahya points out that the desalination plan cost $3 billion, adding, "Note that $3 billion was spent to get only less than a billion cubic meters per year, while natural water used to come free of charge from the Nile."

With Egypt's share of the Nile water at 55.5 billion cubic meters per year, per capita water falls to 600 cubic meters per year, while the global average per capita is <>,<> cubic meters per year.

Asma Yehia quippedly that forcing the government to obtain water through prepayment and at international prices is not much different from the World Bank's "commodification" of the nerve of life and making it an important axis in countries' water relations and a trigger for future wars.