At an open-air, riverbank factory where the Blue Nile and White Nile meet in Sudan, Mohamed Ahmed al Ameen (pictured below) and his colleagues mould thousands of bricks every day from mud deposited by summer floods.
. Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
Ameen drinks his tea.
"I consider the Nile something I have not parted with since I was born," Ameen said, as workers around him shaped bricks with blistered hands and laid them out to dry in the sun. "I eat from it, I farm with it. And I extract these bricks from it."
But the labourers on Tuti Island in Sudan's capital Khartoum fear a giant dam Ethiopia is building close to the border between the two countries could endanger their livelihood.
. Omdurman, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
David Plantino, 35, from South Sudan has been a pottery maker for seven years. “I relied on the Nile river as most people around me here for water and the mud,” he said. “Both are the foundation for people who rely on pottery to make a living… I am not an expert to tell you what we can expect after the Ethiopia’s dam but I can tell you that the difference between the white and blue Nile is that the white has no clay.”
They worry the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam upstream could weaken the Blue Nile's force, putting at risk an industry that locals say provided bricks for some of Khartoum's first modern public buildings around a century ago.
Pottery makers, farmers and fishermen around the Nile's convergence share similar concerns, though other residents displaced by flooding last summer see benefit in a dam that will regulate the powerful river's waters.
. Omdurman, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
Mutasim checks his mobile phone at his workshop.
The dam "will stabilise the Nile and we will get less flooding", said Mutasim al-Jeiry, a 50-year-old potter in a village outside Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, where workers craft jars with clay from the river.
"But on the other hand we will get less clay and less water. Farmers, brick and pottery makers will be seriously affected," he predicts.
A woman travels on a taxi boat across the convergence between the Blue Nile and the White Nile.
The residents' views are a snapshot of the hopes and fears thrown up along the length of the Nile by the vast hydropower project, which has triggered a high-wire diplomatic stand-off between Ethiopia and Egypt downstream.
Ethiopia, which says it is finally asserting its right to harness the Blue Nile's waters to power its economy, promises to start filling the dam's reservoir later this month.
Egypt, which sees a risk to its scarce water supplies, is frantically trying to secure a deal that would guarantee minimum flows from the Blue Nile, the source of about 86% of the waters of the Nile, which flows into the Mediterranean.
. Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
A bird flies over the White and Blue Nile river convergence.
Sudan's government says the dam could threaten the safety of some 20 million Sudanese living downstream and damage the country's flood-plain agricultural system if not built and operated correctly.
But it also sees potential benefits in controlling floods during the rainy season and improving the performance of its own dams.
. Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
The wall of a house that was damaged by the overflow of the Nile river in September 2019.
That ambivalence is echoed in the village of Wad Ramli, 60km (37 miles) downstream from Khartoum, where flooding was especially bad last summer. Some residents whose houses were damaged or destroyed were displaced to canvas tents pitched nearby.
. Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
Tents that belong to people who were displaced by the overflow of the Nile river.
"It is true the Renaissance dam will lower the Nile's water levels and prevent flooding," said Manal Abdelnaay, a 23-year-old living in one of the tents. "However, it will impact farming, and the Wad Ramli area is one that lives off farming.
. Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
Bakr collects eggplants with his workers on his field.
On Tuti Island, farmers and landowners are anxious that if the dam saps the river's strength, there will be less water to irrigate and replenish the soil.
"I came to Tuti in 1988 because the land here is the best for agriculture and close enough to supply markets, and it makes good incomes" says Mussa Adam Bakr, who farms a plot where vegetable fields back onto citrus and mango groves, next to the brick factory.
"Through the year the Tuti earth produces all sorts of vegetables like potatoes, onions, aubergines," says Bakr.
. Omdurman, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
Fishermen wash their catch in the waters of the Nile river.
Story
Sudan was long overshadowed in the dispute over the dam by its two larger neighbours, but has recently stepped up to broker new negotiations between the three countries.
Its citizens will be watching carefully for any changes in the waters they are so dependent upon.
PHOTO EDITING MARIKA KOCHIASHVILI; TEXT EDITING Alexandra Hudson; LAYOUT JULIA DALRYMPLE
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. Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
Tourists sail across the convergence between the White Nile and Blue Nile.
. Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
A group of people sail across the Nile river as they travel from Omdurman to Tuti Island on a taxi boat.
Ibtissam, 46, wife of Mutasim, said: “Our life depends on the mud of the Nile, without it we will not eat.”
. Khartoum, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
Manal, who was displaced by the overflow of the river Nile last September, said: “With the dam that Ethiopia is building we may be less affected by the floods, which is good but we will also face lack of water to irrigate our land.”
. Omdurman, Sudan. Reuters/Zohra Bensemra
A boy plays in the courtyard of his family’s house.