Sudan warns against escalation in Nile dam dispute

GS-Paper-2 International issue AFRICA

Sudan has warned against escalation and urged further negotiations with Egypt and Ethiopia over the construction of a controversial dam on the Blue Nile river by Addis Ababa.

Important points

• Tensions are running high between the three countries after recent talks failed to produce a deal on the filling and operation of the $4.6bn Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
• Ethiopia has declared plans to start filling the dam next month, regardless of whether a deal has been reached.
• The dam is more than 70 per cent complete and promises to generate much-needed electricity for the country.
• Egypt, which views the massive hydroelectric barrage as an existential threat, urged the United Nations Security Council to intervene in the dispute, citing Ethiopia's "non-positive stances".
• Cairo fears the dam could severely reduce its water supply from the Nile, which provides nearly 97 per cent of Egypt's freshwater needs.
• Addis Ababa says the dam is indispensable for its development and insists Egypt's water share will not be affected.
• The Nile is a lifeline supplying water and electricity to the 10 countries it traverses.
• Egypt says the dam threatens the Nile's flow, most of which originates in the Blue Nile, with damaging implications for its food supply and economy.

Egypt and Ethiopia have once again locked horns over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile.

On Feb. 26, Ethiopia temporarily suspended its participation in the U.S.-mediated negotiations over the filling and operation of the GERD, requesting more time to deliberate on the draft agreement.

With the dam 70 per cent complete and its reservoir expected to start being filled in July, the time for reaching an agreement is ticking away.

While the parties have sought international mediation from the U.S. and South Africa, that is no substitute for regional cooperation among the parties.

About Nile River:

• The longest river in the world, the Nile stretches across 11 countries in its journey of 4,000 miles from the equatorial rivers that feed Lake Victoria to its final destination in the Mediterranean Sea.
• Among the countries that share the Nile, two have the most at stake. Egypt, a desert nation of 100 million people, is literally the creation of the Nile, relying on the river for 90 per cent of its freshwater needs.
• Ethiopia, an East African country of 112 million, contributes the lion’s share of the Nile waters, with its three tributaries—the Blue Nile, Sobat, and Atbara—carrying about 84 percent of the total runoff in the Nile.
• With a growing but otherwise resource-poor economy, Ethiopia is keen to develop its vast potential for hydroelectricity generation
• Disagreements over the Nile River have been the source of conflict between upper and downstream countries because life in both sides of the Nile highly depends on the waters of the Nile River.
• Historically, there have been many treaties over the Nile River that were negotiated between different stakeholders in different places in 1902, 1906, 1925, 1929 and in 1959.
• During the colonial era, Great Britain, France and Italy [especially Great Britain] either negotiated on behalf of their colonies, or controlled the Nile through their military presence in Africa.

About Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD):

1. The GERD, a $5 billion project that will be the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa, is a part of that ambition.
2. The dam is located on Ethiopia’s flank of the Blue Nile, just 12 miles from its border with Sudan. It will have paramount economic value to Ethiopia, doubling the country’s electricity generation capacity and earning as much as a billion dollars annually from energy exports to Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, and potentially Egypt.
3. The GERD’s massive reservoir will store 74 billion cubic meters (BCM) of water, roughly equal to a year-and-half’s worth of the Blue Nile’s flow, which will be gradually filled upon the dam’s completion.
4. As the July deadline draws closer for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the river Nile to become functional, the dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt, with Sudan caught in between, has escalated into a diplomatic stand-off.
5. Differences were laid bare recently when Ethiopia skipped the latest round of tripartite negotiations with Egypt and Sudan in Washington, being mediated by the U.S. and the World Bank.

Uganda President calls for urgent African summit on GERD:

Uganda's President said that African presidents must hold frank discussions regarding the Nile River dilemma during this summit, and stressed the importance of ensuring equitable and sustainable usage of the river’s waters.

Kenyan president emphasized the importance of properly utilizing natural resources and sustainably addressing the needs of increasing populations.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian community in New York and New Jersey is gearing up to organize demonstrations in front of the White House, pressuring the US administration to protect Egypt’s water rights and support the negotiations.

The challenges for the fair utilisation of waters among the riparian states have only been compounded by the pressures of population growth and the effects of global warming.

Challenges Ahead that need to address:

• Impact on regional & International Trade: An escalated tension between Ethiopia & Egypt would threaten the vital international trade route through the Suez Canal and along the Horn of Africa.
• Ethiopia has stated that the dispute over the dam project is only a trilateral issue involving Egypt and Sudan.
• Ethiopia asserts its rights for an equitable share of the Blue Nile flows from the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) signed by some of the 10 Nile Basin Initiative nations
• The establishment of the Nile River Basin Commission mandated by the CFA has not materialised so far.
• Ethiopia is concerned that a long delay in filling the reservoir would jeopardise returns on its investments and hamper the prospects for overall growth.
• The mediation role played by the US highlights the significance of the issue and the potential conflict it holds if unresolved. However, the mediation has not been able to progress substantially due to a lack of true intentions from both sides.

Conclusion:

Ethiopia and Egypt should be ready to make significant concessions to avoid a catastrophic escalation in this seemingly intractable dispute.

An agreement involving Egypt, Ethiopia and other river basin countries for equitable sharing of water.

Sustainable use of river water given the ever-increasing problem of pollution and climate change.

Consistent with the principles set out in the declaration of principles, in particular the principles of not causing significant harm to downstream countries, final testing and filling should not take place without an agreement.

These countries can take inspiration from Indus Water Treaty signed between India and Pakistan and brokered by World Bank in 1960. The treaty has been functioning smoothly and has endured three wars over nearly six decades.

Read more about NILE RIVER: https://www.treehugger.com/nile-river-facts-4868689

Coal sector reforms

GS-PAPER-2 Governance and Energy PT-MAINS-I.V

India, being a developing country, coal remains one of the most important indigenous energy resources and the dominant fuel for power generation and many industrial applications.

Presently, despite being the world's fourth-largest producer, India is the second-largest importer of the dry-fuel. Therefore, in line with the vision to build an ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’, a slew of reforms to promote commercial mining of coal in India, has been announced.

Unlocking coal mining for private players is a step forward to attain self-reliance in the coal sector. However, for sustainable utilization of coal, there is a need to look into these reforms from a multidimensional viewpoint.

Announced Reforms In Coal Sector

• Commercial mining of coal allowed, with 50 blocks to be offered to the private sector.
• Entry norms will be liberalised as it has done away with the regulation requiring power plants to use “washed” coal.
• Coal blocks to be offered to private companies on revenue sharing basis in place of fixed cost.
• Coal gasification/liquefaction to be incentivised through rebate in revenue share.
• Coal bed methane (CBM) extraction rights to be auctioned from Coal India’s coal mines.

Intended Benefits

Plugging Supply Gap: The nationalisation of coal in 1973 meant that domestic coal could be mined only by public sector companies.

• In this pursuit, Coal India Limited (CIL), registered an unprecedented increase in coal production and became the world's largest coal miner.
• However, the country’s coal demand continued to grow at a much faster rate. Due to this, the growth in coal import (2009 to 2014) stood at 23 per cent.
• Commercial mining of coal can increase the domestic production of coal and bridge the supply gap.

Boost Economy and Employment: Allowing commercial mining may help to address India’s coal production needs, provide investment opportunities and save precious foreign exchange.

• This will play a major role in ensuring the energy security of the country, as nearly the majority of power generation in India comes from thermal power plants.
• The domino effect on sectors that use coal, like steel, power and aluminium, is going to be significant.

Win-Win Situation: The government has introduced a more equitable system of sharing of revenues, moving away from fixed rates to a revenue-sharing model.

• Revenue sharing model will ensure when the prices go up, the miner shares more with the government; and if the price decreases, miner shares less. This is a win-win situation for both parties.

Challenges

Dominance of Coal India: While reforms are aimed at ending the monopoly of Coal India Ltd., that’s unlikely to happen in the near future.

• The current commercial coal mining regime will find it difficult to compete with Coal India. As the major consumer of coal in India (thermal power plants and steel sector) are in long term purchase agreements with Coal India.
• Also, it will be a challenge for many companies to be able to match Coal India’s ability to navigate the complicated bureaucratic and political hurdles associated with opening new coal mines.

Issue with Non-washing of Coal: Doing away with the regulation requiring power plants to use “washed” coal will have huge environmental and economic costs.

• The “washing” requirement was introduced in 1997 and promised the use of cleaner coal in power production. It was India’s only legitimate justification to extend the use of coal as a development fuel despite the climate crisis.
• Also, a manufacturing or power-producing unit has to burn more coal and in turn generate not only ash but also noxious gases, particulate matter and carbon emissions.

PT:

• Coal washeries are units that reduce the ash content in coal through a mix of segregation, blending and washing techniques.
• These technologies are meant to allow the conservation and optimal use of coal reserves by improving the quality and efficiency of low grade, high ash Indian coal.
• Washed coal also provides high grade “coking” coal that is essential for the steel sector.
• Indian coal is known to contain 30-50% ash, meaning that for every two units of coal burned, one unit of ash could be produced.

External Challenges: In the era of intense competition from renewables, the rising NPAs of thermal power plants (TPPs) and a massive global withdrawal from fossil fuel for climate and environmental reasons poses a challenge of viability for commercialising coal.

Conclusion

• For easing commercialisation of coal, there is a need to establish a single-window clearance process for coal mines. Offering projects with secured clearances will boost timely development as well as increase industry participation
• Government support for the early resolution in land acquisition-related issues is needed to ensure timely operationalisation of coal mines. Further, commercial mining projects can be aided with investment in initial infrastructure settings which is more capital intensive than mining.
• Technology upgradation measures to be imposed to improve the productivity of the coal mines and improve recovery from the coal mines.
• The government may consider creating funds to support overseas acquisition to supplement domestic resources.
• Steps need to be taken to promote research and exploration activities and modern underground mass production technologies.

Anti Defection Law

Part of: GS-II- Polity (PT-MAINS-PERSONALITY TEST)

Recently, some of the sitting MLAs in the Manipur government defected to the opposition creating instability in the state's polity. This politics of defection in Manipur is not unique, there have been some other recent examples of defection in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

For a very long time, the Indian political system was impacted by political defections by members of the legislature. This situation brought about greater instability and chaos in the political system.

Thus, in 1985, to curb the evil of political defections, the 52^nd constitution amendment act on anti-defection was passed and the 10th Schedule was added in the Indian Constitution.

However, the recent examples of defection in the Indian polity show that the law needs a relook in order to plug the loopholes and achieve a balance between the rights of legislators and interests of legislative stability.

Issues

Subversion of electoral mandates: Defection is the subversion of electoral mandates by legislators who get elected on the ticket of one party but then find it convenient to shift to another, due to the lure of ministerial berths or financial gains.

• Affects the normal functioning of government: The infamous “Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram” slogan was coined against the background of continuous defections by the legislators in the 1960s. The defection leads to instability in the government and affects the administration.
• Promote horse-trading: Defection also promotes horse-trading of legislators which clearly go against the mandate of a democratic setup.

91^st Constitution Amendment Act-2003

• It aimed at limiting the size of the Council of Ministers to debar defectors from holding public offices, and to strengthen the anti-defection law.
• Earlier, a defection by one-third of the elected members of a political party was considered a ‘merger’. The amendment changed it to at least two-thirds.

Kihota Hollohon vs. Zachilhu (1992)

• In the judgment, the Supreme Court clarified that the 10^th schedule is constitutionally valid. It neither impinges upon the freedom of speech and expression nor subverts the democratic rights of elected members.
• It also upheld the sweeping discretion available to the Speaker in deciding cases of disqualification of MLAs. However, it also held that Presiding Officer’s decisions of disqualification shall be open to judicial review.

Challenges

Against the true spirit of representative democracy: The anti-defection law seeks to provide a stable government by ensuring the legislators do not switch sides. However, this law also enforces a restriction on legislators from voting in line with their conscience, judgement and interests of his electorate.

• Impedes legislative control on government: The anti-defection law impedes the oversight function of the legislature over the government, by ensuring that members vote based on the decisions taken by the party leadership.

In short, if legislators are not able to vote on laws independently, they would not act as an effective check on the government.

The Anti-Defection Law, in effect, dilutes the separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislature – and centralises power in the hands of the executives.

• Role of presiding officer of the house: The law lays down that legislators may be disqualified on grounds of defection by the Presiding Officer of a legislature based on a petition by any other member of the House.

However, there are many instances when presiding officers play a part with the vested interests of a political party/government in power.

Also, the law does not specify a time period for the Presiding Officer to decide on a disqualification plea.

The decision thus is sometimes based on the whims and fancies of the presiding officer.

• Affects the debate and discussion: The Anti-Defection Law has created a democracy of parties and numbers in India, rather than a democracy of debate and discussion. In this way, it does not make a differentiation between dissent and defection and weaken the Parliamentary deliberations on any law.

What to do?

• Rational use of the anti-defection law: Several experts have suggested that the law should be valid only for those votes that determine the stability of the government. e.g. passage of the annual budget or no-confidence motions.
• Advice of Election Commission: Various commissions including National Commission to review the working of the constitution (NCRWC) have recommended that rather than the Presiding Officer, the decision to disqualify a member should be made by the President (in case of MPs) or the Governor (in case of MLAs) on the advice of the Election Commission.
• Independent authority to deal with disqualification: Justice Verma in Hollohan judgment said that tenure of the Speaker is dependent on the continuous support of the majority in the House and therefore, he does not satisfy the requirement of such independent adjudicatory authority. Also, his choice as the sole arbiter in the matter violates an essential attribute of the basic feature. Thus, the need for an independent authority to deal with the cases of defection.
• Promoting the principle of intra-party democracy: 170^th Law Commission report underscored the importance of intra-party democracy by arguing that a political party cannot be a dictatorship internally and democratic in its functioning outside. Thus, the parties should listen to the opinions of the members and have discussions on the same. This would give the freedom of speech and expression to its members and promote inner-party democracy.

Conclusion

Though due to anti-defection law, political instability caused by the frequent and unholy change of allegiance on the part of the legislators of our country has been contained to a very great extent, yet there is a need for a more rationalised version of anti-defection laws which will help establish a truly representative democracy.