Above: There is a battle over the historic river. Under existing
accords, Egypt has veto power over development projects, but
upstream nations say they should not be bound by unfair pacts.

The Los Angeles Times
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Kate Linthicum
September 11, 2010|8:09 p.m.

In recent years, Chinese contractors have threaded skeins of power lines across the Nile Basin to carry electricity from the Tana-Beles plant to distant cities such as Addis Ababa and to nearby Bahir Dar. More than 80% of Ethiopians live without modern electricity, according to the World Bank.

Zegeye Alemye, a barber in Blue Nile Village about two hours drive from Tana-Beles, was adamant that the river be developed. “This country should benefit from the Nile,” he said.

Zegeye lives on the banks of the Abay River, the largest Blue Nile tributary. More than 50 years ago, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie built one of the nation’s first hydropower plants on the river, not far from Zegeye’s tiny tin-roofed shop. Another hydropower plant was built downstream in the 1980s. Electricity transformed the village from a few hundred people into a town of 7,000. Read more