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

<strong>Double</strong>-<strong>Edged</strong> <strong>Hydropolitics</strong> on the Nile
aquatic ecosystems are serious – yet still geographically confined – problems
on the African continent.
In low-income countries, technical solutions to water management
challenges are often unaffordable, and reforms in the agricultural sector
(the main consumer of freshwater) need to be carefully tailored to the needs
of the many small-scale farmers. Takahashi (2001) finds that water policy
challenges in marginalized economies mainly relate to issues of agricultural
productivity, poverty alleviation, and the prevention of inter-group conflicts.
The need for a better understanding of the interactions between water uses
in different sectors, economic growth, and poverty alleviation is recognized
by researchers and policy-makers alike (e.g., Turton et al. 2003). The World
Bank generally distinguishes growth-oriented and ‘pro-poor’ interventions
that need to be traded off both in the design of water services delivery programs
and in the overall planning of water resources development (World
Bank 2004 a).
The debate on which interventions render maximum overall benefits, and
how these benefits should be distributed, also shapes the search for domestic
and basin-wide river management regimes in the Nile Basin.
2.2 The Nile Basin
The hydropolitical history of the Nile Basin in the last century is one of
asymmetrical development and missed opportunities for cooperation. This
section offers a brief overview of the hydrological and hydropolitical background
of the Nile Basin from a macro perspective. Comprehensive literature
reviews on the Nile Basin are provided by Collins (1991), Mohamoda (2003),
and Tvedt (2003). A considerable number of articles and book chapters
analyze the Nile Basin with a focus on the incompatible national interests
and the strategies applied by the Nile states to meet their goals through
unilateral and cooperative strategies (e.g., Mageed 1994; Wolf 1994; Hultin
1995; Swain 1997; Waterbury 1997; Scheumann and Schiffler 1998; Waterbury
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