- The people of Somaliland and Ethiopia have relationship that pre-dates more than 300 years and on top of that Somaliland is predominantly backed by the Isaaq clan, which have Ethiopian mother ancestry.
Ethiopia is landlocked but God blessed her with lakes and rivers unlike any other in Africa. Somaliland has no flowing rivers but plenty of ports. I am an Isaaq born and bred in Ethiopia. I have been to Somaliland once and Somalia remains alien to me and will probably be for the rest of my life.
I want the people of Somaliland and Ethiopia to work together and tackle problems together.
In high school, I was both into and good at physics so I wanted one day to solve an easy way to desalinate salt water. I was studying the map of Berbera in Somaliland, I realized it would be very expensive process that no African country can afford let alone unrecognized Somaliland.Then I thought to myself, why not port for water!
Ethiopia and Somaliland sign port for water treaty in which Ethiopia gains unlimited access to Berbera port and Somaliland gains unlimited access to Ethiopia's vast water reservoirs and resources.
This is a win-win for both nations and people.
Berbera is reserved to Ethiopia as an exclusive zone while Somaliland is built vast networks of pipelines, water stations, quarantines and whole water infrastructure using Ethiopian lakes or rivers. On top of that fruit and vegetables grown in Ethiopia are provided to Somaliland on subsidized scheme.
We can also do per KG cargo vs per LT (litre) water....1 Metric tone of cargo = 1 cubic meter of water.
Say for example Ethiopia imports and exports 500,000 MT of cargo in and out of Berbera port then it must send 500,000 cubic meter of water in the opposite direction.
At the moment Ethiopia spends roughly $800m on tariffs at Djibouti port(s).
Imagine if Ethiopia can save 40% of that fee and in return Somaliland is receiving $320m worth of water annually? Somaliland will have booming industrial economy that faces no water shortages while Ethiopia has extra $480m to spend on domestic infrastructure and development.
This is my vision. I did not just think of it one night, I have been planning my political ideas since I was in high school and today I am 27.
I will discuss this a bit more later. Ethiopia gets full access to Berbera and becomes its own exclusive economic zone while Somaliland gets full access to Ethiopian rivers and lakes and rich agricultural land. Ethiopia secures itself and saves, Somaliland has plenty of water to power its own economy and food security. Win-win eventually and people need to give up egos for better future.
I welcome everyone's feedback but only those who will contribute to this. Above is a map showing the proposed pipelines to Somaliland in blue lines.
Somaliland will use Zeila, Maid, Las Qorey ports for its own domestic need. Somaliland pipelines into Ethiopia should have their own exclusive access to waters and must not be linked to Ethiopia's own domestic ones.
Ethiopia has many ports to select from the region and like wise Somaliland sits on its own island of water (underground water) as shown by NASA pictures (see image below).
When each nation greatly goes through its books of balance, I am confident they will come to the conclusion that Ethio-Somaliland Port-Water treaty is indeed the best way forward.
Taping into Somaliland's underground water will run into the billions and could damage the whole country's eco-system forever.
Ethiopia should not be blackmailed into paying ridiculous tariffs nor should its sons die for a port that it will not guarantee it will use it for longer than it is occupying.
Ethiopia can do port business worth billions. Somaliland can become an industrial and agriculture exporting nation. Otherwise Berbera can sit there and Gabiley farmers can continue watering their tomato farms with a small hose.
Somalilander
No comments:
Post a Comment