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Water an afterthought in dash to cash in on Ethiopian markets

18 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by nubiaNomad in thoughts

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Addis Ababa, Ambo, brewery, Ethiopia, Heineken, water, water resources

I ran across an article titled “Coming Soon to Ethiopia: Heineken and KFC?” a few days ago through Mashable via Businessweek. The article highlights Heineken’s entry into the Ethiopian market through the purchase of 2 local beer company and development of a large Heineken brewery on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, near Ambo. The article goes on to note that other multinational companies such as Yum Corporation are exploring expansion into Ethiopia.

The story of Heineken, which is not breaking news by any means since has been in development for the last few years, is of concern nonetheless. In the frenzy to attract direct foreign investment, basic questions related to availability of resources- water namely have been absent from national discourse. The location of Heineken’s new brewery is in direct competition for water resources, mostly groundwater, with other industries such as Ambo Sparkling water as well as domestic water supply sources for Addis Ababa and commercial agriculture in the area.

The entry of Heineken into Ethiopia has been received with mixed emotions and has been mostly scrutinized from financial and economic viability angles. Very few have questioned that this brewery that will require large quantities of water, a finite resource in the area. Although Ethiopia has been endowed with plentiful water resources, the Ambo area, which falls in the Awash River Basin, heavily relies on groundwater sources. The city of Addis Ababa also relies on the same groundwater sources for domestic water supply. Both Addis Ababa and Ambo, which are geographically located in the Great Rift Valley, sit on stratified groundwater aquifers. Due to complex geology and expense to carry out technical studies,  limited information is known about the characteristics of these aquifers and available water resources. To meet domestic water supply demands, wells are being dug deeper and deeper, adding to the cost of new water source development and increasing the cost of operation of maintenance due to the use of pumps to retrieve water from deep wells.

As water demanding industries such as breweries expand in the area, Addis Ababa and its surrounding communities face increased risk of land subsidence, as well as complications to already strained domestic water supplies. So with the introduction of Heineken in stores and bars across Addis Ababa, beer maybe plentiful in the coming months, drinking water in the coming years may not.

Businesses such as Heineken, need not take availability of water resources for granted, given that they must share this resource with many other sectors. Also, given the scale of investments going into these breweries, detailed groundwater investigations that can shed light on groundwater sources and better inform water resources planning are a cheap investment for private sector and a public service to Ministry of Water and Energy.

Given that the scale of this problem will be exasperated in coming years, as the population of Addis Ababa mushrooms and industries in the area grow, I hope that much greater consideration for water resources and implications of overdraft are considered more seriously.

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14 Friday Dec 2007

Posted by nubiaNomad in Travel

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Uruguay, water resources, work

Today there was finally a breakthrough with my work. After months and months of working with a particular water resources model, I was able to run the simulation fully and actually get RESULTS! spending the better part of the past 1.5 months just trying to debug precipitation files that dated back more than a 100 years drove me to the brink of insanity. Now begins the task of trying to decipher what the outputs mean and what is actually relevant.

Another note, finally I got my Brazilian visa. For anyone planning to travel around the region, I suggest you get all your required visas (for all countries back in Canada or the States). I had to pay the same price for my visa as I would in Canada but mine was only valid for a few weeks. whereas the ones issues from North America are valid for 5 years (multiple entry). So (inshallah) I am planning to make the most out of this trip.

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Better late than never

06 Thursday Dec 2007

Posted by nubiaNomad in Travel

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Montevideo, South America, Uruguay, water resources

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So it has taken me a while to get to this point. For many months I have fought the pressure to get a blog started merely because I don’t know if I have the commitment to keep it up. I will try my best but no promises. I figured it would be the best way to send updates and post pictures. Where to start…. well I am constantly berated by friends and acquaintances for my tendency to relocate every so often. Currently I am living in Montevideo, Uruguay. To date, I have been here for nearly 3 months. It’s definitely been an interesting experience to say the least.

This trip, unlike any of my previous endeavours was really diving head first into unknown waters. I came here knowing little about the country, no Spanish to speak of, and no clue what I just got myself into. I figured I should seize the opportunity. The process of getting here was such a daze, in the midst of dissertation madness, I stumbled upon this current fellowship during my bouts of procrastination/ near mental breakdown of piecing my dissertation together. With my dissertation deadline fast approaching (or in reality a self-imposed earlier deadline, in order to cross the pond to make it to my beloved cousin’s wedding), and no plans in sight, the discovery of this fellowship was a sign. My excitement about the discovery soon dissipated as I realized the deadline was only days away. Days after what seemed to be the longest phone interview ever, I got the good news.

So about life in Uruguay; it definitely has its ups and downs. Uruguay in comparison to its neighbors (Brazil and Argentina) is a dot on the map. A dot that I really like! The people are fairly helpful. Being constantly stared at in public never ceases to amuse me. I am definitely an anomaly around these parts. Everything about me throws people off and trying to answer the “where are you from?” question is the hardest thing. For now I’ve perfected a simplified answer. Language wise, it was a rough start and till today I still struggle. There are days where I feel that my comprehension has gotten so much better and other days where it just hurts to keep up with the pace of conversations. I often miss the subtle jokes and nuances of the daily speech. I can’t really sum up my last 3 months in one post, and I have no intention of trying. I’m hoping I can just pick up from here. I put up a few pics on fb, so all those who repeatedly asked to see what Uruguay looks like can have a glimpse.

Work wise, I am working on a water resource management project, sounds great in theory but in reality my day-to-day functions are more akin to those of a computer programmer. I spend hours writing FORTRAN or visual basic codes. These days my activities have been primarily limited to debugging. I am having huge issues with the modeling program that refuses to accept the data files. So more or less I stare at decades and decades worth of data, trying to make changes to mistakes that I see in the hopes that I can get my model up and running. I ‘ll keep at it in the hopes of accomplishing something worthwhile in the end.

I will try my best to keep this blog up, I promise.

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