In Nubia, Northern Sudan, there is growing anxiety about the planned construction of three dams on the Nile. The Sudanese government refuses to reveal the plans and claims that nothing has been decided upon as yet. But Nubians fear the dams will inundate most of their territory and force hundreds of thousands to leave their homeland.
"Stop Kajbar Dam now! Rescue the Nubian people!" A group of about 25 Nubians protested on Monday in front of the Sudanese and Chinese embassies in The Hague; holding up photographs of four demonstrators who died in a recent clash with the Sudanese police. Nubians are still traumatized by the construction of the huge Aswan Dam by the Egyptian government in the 1960s. In a state of perplexity, 50,000 Nubians were evacuated from the region that had been theirs for thousands of years. Now, some 40 years later, it looks as if the tragedy is about to repeat itself. Energy shortages in the booming capital, Khartoum, made the Sudanese government decide to build three dams on the Nile in Northern Sudan, at Merowe, Kajbar and Dal.
I don't want to appear single-minded, but as well as the enforced relocation of Nubian people - again - there is probably also the issue of the potential loss of heritage from these areas.
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