Sudan: At Nile's convergence, fears and hopes over giant dam

At an open-air, riverbank factory where the Blue Nile and White Nile meet in Sudan, Mohamed Ahmed al-Ameen and his colleagues mould thousands of bricks every day from mud deposited by summer floods.

"I consider the Nile something I have not parted with since I was born," al-Ameen said, as workers around him shaped bricks with blistered hands and laid them out to dry in the sun. "I eat from it, I farm with it. And I extract these bricks from it."

But the labourers on Tuti Island in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, fear a giant dam Ethiopia is building close to the border between the two countries could endanger their livelihood.

They worry the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam upstream could weaken the Blue Nile's force, putting at risk an industry that locals say provided bricks for some of Khartoum's first modern public buildings about a century ago.

Pottery makers, farmers and fishermen around the Nile's convergence share similar concerns, though other residents displaced by flooding last summer see a benefit in a dam that will regulate the powerful river's waters.

Sudan was long overshadowed in the dispute over the dam by its two larger neighbours, but has recently stepped up to broker new negotiations between the three countries.

Its citizens will be watching carefully for any changes in the waters they are so dependent upon.

By Al- Helalee