Double-Edged Hydropolitics on the Nile - Center for Security Studies ...

<strong>Double</strong>-<strong>Edged</strong> <strong>Hydropolitics</strong> on the Nile
investment projects in order “to achieve sustainable socio-economic development
through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common
Nile Basin water resources” (NBI 2007).
The progress of transboundary cooperation critically depends on the
ability of riparian water users to overcome widespread perceptions viewing
the allocation of shared rivers as a zero-sum game. This can be achieved,
for instance, by exploiting comparative advantages in different regions of
the basin, and by sharing benefits from water uses instead of the sharing
water itself (e.g., Sadoff and Grey 2002). Hydropower trade, the basin-wide
coordination of agricultural policies (see Sileet et al. 2007), and far-reaching
economic integration beyond the broader water sector promise substantial
benefits for all Nile Basin states. Reforms of national policies are required
to tap these transboundary potentials. Such reforms face considerable constraints
at the domestic level, particularly as far as demand management as
an alternative to increased river water abstraction is concerned. In view of
these domestic constraints, the bargaining positions put forth by national
negotiators tend to focus on the objectives of maximizing the de jure national
water abstraction quotas, and the (joint) implementation of infrastructure
projects to enhance the total supply.
This chapter first outlines the underlying conceptual framework and
introduces the two-level game concept. It then elaborates on the main characteristics
of water policy processes in Egypt and Ethiopia in terms of
interest divides and water sector institutions, with a particular focus on the
NBI. On this basis, the main mechanisms of interactions between domestic
and international water governance, as well as the major implications for
the course of transboundary cooperation in the Nile Basin are discussed.
Important trends and opportunities to strengthen the ongoing cooperation
process are addressed at the end of the chapter.
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