Tufts University-led study--co-authored by three MIT Joint Program researchers--predicts growth of cyanobacteria in lakes and reservoirs due to global warming. Coverage: NPR/Michigan Radio, WGBH
One drought remedy: Keep infrastructure fast, cheap, and under control
Only if the government provides subsidies to farmers who invest in the practice, suggests study co-authored by MIT Joint Program Research Scientist Kenneth Strzepek
Kenneth Strzepek applies models to help decision-makers advance food security and sustainable development in a climate-compromised continent
ClimateWire: MIT Joint Program Research Scientist Kenneth Strzepek comments on the need for flexibility in water-sharing agreements in the Nile basin
Over the next century, southern Africa will see widespread decreases in maize production
How Models Can Help Agriculture Adapt to Climate Change Uncertainties
Study finds high risk of severe water stress in Asia by 2050
The largest hydroelectric project in Africa has so far produced only discord
The Economist
WHEN Egyptian politicians discussed sabotaging the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in 2013, they naturally assumed it was a private meeting. But amid all the scheming, and with a big chuckle, Muhammad Morsi, then president, informed his colleagues that their discussion was being broadcast live on a state-owned television channel.
Embarrassment apart, it was already no secret that Egypt wanted to stop the largest hydroelectric project in Africa. When Ethiopia completes construction of the dam in 2017, it will stand 170 metres tall (550 feet) and 1.8km (1.1 miles) wide. Its reservoir will be able to hold more than the volume of the entire Blue Nile, the tributary on which it sits (see map). And it will produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity, more than double Ethiopia’s current measly output, which leaves three out of four people in the dark...
EXCERPTS:
. . . A sense of mistrust hangs over the dam’s ultimate use. Ethiopia insists that it will produce only power and that the water pushing its turbines (less some evaporation during storage) will ultimately come out the other side. But Egypt fears it will also be used for irrigation, cutting downstream supply. Experts are sceptical. “It makes no technological or economic sense [for Ethiopia] to irrigate land with that water,” as it would involve pumping it back upstream, says Kenneth Strzepek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. . .
. . . How much water Sudan uses in the future, and other variables such as changes in rainfall and water quality, should determine how the dam is operated. That will require more co-operation and a willingness to compromise. Disagreement between Egypt and Sudan over such things as the definition of “significant harm” bodes ill. But all three countries will benefit if they work together, claims Mr Strzepek, citing the dam’s capacity to store water for use in drought years and its potential to produce cheap energy for export once transmission lines are built. . .
Read the article in The Economist.
Photo: Landsat-7 satellite image of the bend in the Nile River and adjacent farmland (Photo courtesy of Jesse Allen, NASA)
MIT researchers explain how technical analysis can avoid potential conflict.
