Water and Politics in Africa: Hydropolitics of the River Nile

Inarguably, 2011 was a continuum-shifting year in Nile Hydropolitics. While the wider Arab Spring contributed to revolution in Egypt in 2011, the division of Sudan in January of the same year to create South Sudan, the world's newest sovereign state, was arguably a greater dichotomic shift in the region. On a national level the coincident  alongside the global food crisis in 2008 greatly catalysed a continuum shift in Sudan, transforming the country from oil-orientation more towards agriculture, which naturally requires greater hydrological resources and hydraulic infrastructures ( Cascao and Nicol 2016 ). This is a significant shift as, like Egypt, Sudan has one of the largest natural water deficits, so a shift towards a more hydro-centric industry will only further strain water allocations between riparians ( Mielnik 2021 ). These factors can foreground an argument that Sudan is the Nile riparian that has experienced the greatest transformation, with the economic and politic...

Instability to Insecurity? Egypt's Diminishing Influence over the Nile's Waters It has come to talk about Egypt: arguably the country that has shaped Nile hydropolitics the most, but at the same time, the country that itself has been shaped most by the Nile. It only takes a population density image, as the one in Figure 1, to indicate how the Nile is the cradle and lifeline of Egyptian civilisation.  Egypt was formally the most politically stable riparian country with the strongest economy, which upheld its hegemony by having a greater stronghold in negotiations, but political crisis and social unrest widely transformed this. In our analysis, i t is fundamental to assess the reduction in Egyptian influence over the Nile's waters between external factors (e.g., Ethiopian hegemony, more equitable sharing of water resources) against internal factors (instability in Egypt). (above) Source Point 1: Historical connotations of the Nile Water in Egypt The existence of Egypt ...

In the last blog post, we discovered how wider political contexts in a country has direct impacts not only on its domestic hydropolitics, but also affects the wider hydrological sphere. Moving on from this, it becomes crucial to look at how Ethiopia has managed to gain and sustain its new political hydropower by 'exploiting its bargaining power' to achieve its own goals, under the guise of mutual benefit across the Nile Basin. (above) A video to highlight the Ethiopia's hydraulic projects being both mutually beneficial for Ethiopia and Sudan, while also perpetuating disputes.   One integral case that we must look at in this context is to look at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam ( GERD ), the biggest hydrological infrastructural project in the Nile's recent history. It is common to analyse the GERD as a catalyst of change, as its construction is likely to pursue further economic growth for Ethiopia, and wider multilateral trade and economic activity between the ripar...

Tezeta : a mode of music in Ethiopia, with this version recorded after the Ethiopian revolution of 1974. It relates to understanding 'the meeting of force and meaning', relating to nostalgia as the 'act of memory' and a profound sense of lot memories. Despite being the source of 85% of the Nile's total waters, Ethiopia has not been viewed as a hegemonic riparian state along the Nile ( Arsano and Tamrat 2005 ).  86% of the Nile's waters originates from the Ethiopian highlands, as Ethiopia virtually controls the most essential source of the Blue Nile, as well as many sources of the White Nile, as Figure 1 highlights ( Kendie 1999 ).  (below) Figure 1. A hydrological map of the Nile River Basin, with indications of reservoir storage volumes along certain infrastructural features along the various waterways. It is important to indicate in the map, how not only the sources of the Blue Nile are incorporated within the Ethiopian highlands, but also how many tributaries...

  Historically, humans have always been drawn to water. The earliest human habitations can stem their roots back to river civilisations, while some of the current biggest cities in the world have been built around rivers, such as London, Cairo, Shanghai. I n modern times, it has some of the highest concentrations of human populations, with some of the most rapidly growing economies in the world. However, the Nile River Basin has a far longer history, as one of the cradles of civilisation ( Arsano 2007 ). Ancient polities and empires have existed across Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, while in the modern day, the sheer length of the river in traverses 11 diverse riparian states (Figure 1), with a multitude of cultures and peoples, as well as conflict, instability and impoverishment. From this, an argument can be made that there is no better way to look at how water in a political context has shaped human development than the biggest, and among the oldest inhabited, bodies of water i...