Two Rivers Meet

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As many people know, the Nile River is generally thought to be the longest river in the world; about 6650 km long.

Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile

It has two major tributaries the White Nile and Blue Nile.  These two rivers flow north, join up in Sudan and form the Nile River.  The Nile then carries on to Egypt and eventually empties into the Mediterranean Sea.

17th Century Bridge, on the way to the Falls

People may not know the Blue Nile is the source of most of the water in the Nile and its source is Lake Tana, in Ethiopia.   90% of the water and 96% of the sediment carried by the Nile originates in Ethiopia.

Blue Nile Falls

For various historical reasons Egypt has had control over the Nile water resources.  You can imagine the challenges surrounding sharing water in drought prone East Africa.  There is obviously some crankiness among the countries (Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, DRC, Ethiopia and Kenya) through which the Nile flows as they have little control/access to the waters.  There has recently been progress on a Nile Basin Initiative to promote a peaceful solution regarding water sharing among theses countries. For more info. on this here is what the informative  Wikipedia has to say:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile_Basin_Initiative

All of us and Brian

During the Meskel holidays we  and our honourary family member, Brian took a little jaunt to the city of Bahir Dar to see the source of the Nile and the Blue Nile Falls.  A very lovely weekend.