2005 - 2006 - Pinsent Masons Water Yearbook 2012

EGYPT PART 2: COUNTRY ANALYSIS
Conflict Study: The Nile River Basin
The 10 countries within the Nile basin contain 40% of Africa's population and make up 10% percent of
its land mass. These countries are: Egypt, Sudan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. More than 85% of the Nile's water comes
from the Blue Nile, which originates in Ethiopia. However, most of the river's flow of 85 billion m 3 per
annum is used by Egypt, the last nation on the Nile's path to the Mediterranean Sea. In 1959, a pact
was drawn up dividing most of the Nile’s waters between Egypt and Sudan. Earlier agreements
include those drawn up on behalf of Nile Basin countries between various European Empires.
The Nile effectively provides Egypt with its fresh water. In recent years, the upstream nations have
started to harness the Nile's waters in response to economic development and population growth. In
Ethiopia, more than 200 irrigation dams have been built during the 1990s, that will use nearly 500
million m 3 of the Nile's flow annually, while further dams are being planned for hydropower. If Ethiopia
sought to develop half of its irrigation potential, this would reduce the river's flow to Egypt by 15%.
The basin does not produce enough fresh water to satisfy the irrigation plans of both Ethiopia and
Egypt. Egypt’s New Valley irrigation project is based on relocating seven million people who will be
supplied with 5 billion m 3 per annum of water from the Lake Nasser reservoir. Sudan plans to build its
own dam on the Nile north of Khartoum, where the Blue Nile and the White Nile converge.
After threats by Egypt to go to war over its water resources, diplomacy has been replacing rhetoric.
All ten countries have signed the UN’s 1997 transboundary waters convention. The U.S. State
Department and Environmental Protection Agency have opened field offices to help developing
nations negotiate transboundary solutions to regional environmental problems including freshwater
scarcity. The Eastern Africa hub, which specialises in Nile Basin water resource issues, opened in
Addis Ababa in 1998. With the region’s population rising from 140 million in 1980 to 340 million by
2025, longer term resolutions depend on population stabilisation. In May 1999, water ministers from
the ten Nile Basin states agreed to co-operate on the equitable use of the Nile water resources and to
strengthen the Nile secretariat head office in Entebbe, Uganda. At a meeting in Khartoum in August
2000, officials agreed to plans for the redistribution of the Nile waters, including power sharing
cooperatives, river regulation and water resources management. Egypt is said to have agreed to
cancel its monopoly of the waters under the 1959 treaty and has agreed to improve relations with
Ethiopia and Sudan. Even so, Kenya’s notice of intent to withdraw from the treaty in 2003 has been
described by Egypt as “an act of war”. In June 2001, the first meeting of the International Consortium
for Cooperation on the Nile (ICCON) took place, when the donor community pledged US$140 million
to support various programmes.
Sources:
GWI (2002). Egypt gripped by wave of pessimism. Global Water Intelligence, 3/9, p 5.
Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (2005) Water for the Future: National Water Resources Plan 2017, Cairo, Egypt
85 Pinsent Masons Water Yearbook 2005 – 2006