HAMDAB DAM – Row over water wells between Chinese, residents
Nov 28, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Reports from Hamdab Dam (Officially known as Merowe Dam) affected area confirmed that the whole affected area is on the verge of explosion anytime into violence, after the sudden escalations of events between the dam authorities and the affected people.
Behind the current escalations is the Chinese Contractors building electrical network towers. The Chinese occupied water wells in Sani area (a Manasir nomads centre) preventing women and children from water. The Chinese say they need the water for the concrete works and for their own domestic use in their camp.
Repeated attempts by nomads to reach the water failed when the Chinese refused them access to water and called on dam security forces to reinforce them against the nomads. The nomads unable to reach the water contacted the executive committee of the dam affected people in Khartoum and reported the incidence.
The Committee immediately dispatched four of its members to the area (350 km from Khartoum) to work out an amicable solution for the crisis.
The meeting between the Committee, the Chinese and the dam representative didn’t get anywhere as the dam representative categorically refused to recognize the Committee rejecting all its efforts to defuse the tension and solve the problem.
(ST)
Denying the rights of the nomads in their wells and lands, the dam representative repeated that “the lands and the wells are the property of the dam authorities and they have the right to set priorities on how and who could use them and when”.
All efforts by the Committee failed when the dam representative challenged the Committee and the nomads to “ride the highest of their horses”, a proverb meaning call for fighting. Thereafter the Chinese and the dam representative left the meeting refusing any amicable solution.
The Committee immediately issued a 24 hrs ultimatum to the Chinese Contractors to withdraw workers and equipments from the land they occupied. This was followed by another 24hrs ultimatum for the dam offices in the affected areas to close down and their staff to leave the area.
Visiting the affected people down on the Nile bank the Committee instructed all the people to prepare for the worst. The Committee, in Statement accused dam authorities of deliberate escalations stating that dam authorities must be hold responsible for all events that might follow these escalations.
Worth mentioning is that the dam authorities continue refusing to recognize the Committee of the affected people despite the fact that the authorities have attended the Committee elections taking part in supervision procedures, accepting that the elections were fair and transparent.
(ST)