This book presents the current conflict in the Middle East and North Africa over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the biggest in Africa. The project explains why economic, and to some extent political, survival is at the core of the conflict, specifically between Egypt and Ethiopia. Although the problem started with insistence of “no dam” by Egypt and subsequently narrowed down to a filling up period of the reservoir and technical operations of the dam, finding a solution agreeable to both nations has been elusive for the past eight years. Ensuring water for all members in the Basin is consistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6, particularly given the looming effects of climate change, increasing population, urbanization, and rising consumptive water uses.

The effective and efficient management of water is a major problem, not just for economic growth and development in the Nile River basin, but also for the peaceful coexistence of the millions of people who live in the region. Of critical importance to the people of this part of Africa is the reasonable, equitable and sustainable management of the waters of the Nile River and its tributaries. Written by scholars trained in economics and law, and with significant experience in African political economy, this book explores new ways to deal with conflict over the allocation of the waters of the Nile River and its tributaries. The monograph provides policymakers in the Nile River riparian states and other stakeholders with practical and effective policy options for dealing with what has become a very contentious problem—the effective management of the waters of the Nile River. The analysis is quite rigorous but also extremely accessible.

This paper reviews literature on the Nile basin co-operation and issues related to this process, focusing on more recent publications. The literature on utilization and management of the Nile waters related to basin-wide cooperation efforts has been growing fast during the last decade. This review discusses and covers a wide range of issues, which include: debate on water scarcity and its potential consequences in general, and its implications for the Nile basin countries in particular; legal aspects of utilization of the Nile waters focusing on the UN Watercourse Convention of 1997; conflicts and major attempts at cooperation; divergent views and interests of the basin countries; and challenges and prospects of the recent basin-wide cooperation.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, grade: 14,5 p., University of Marburg, language: English, abstract: Since South Sudan's secession in 2011 the Nile River is shared by eleven countries (Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, D.R. Congo, and Kenya) and is home to more than 160 million people. Five of these countries are among the poorest in the world, with low levels of socio-economic development or - in other words - with tremendously high potentials and motivation to socio-economically develop. Today, exploitation of the Nile has reached its limits with ever greater populations and industries depending on its waters. History has created political power structures which represent the exact opposite of the hydrological realites. Although the river receives no contributions from Egyptian territories, the country is the most excessive consumer of Nile waters and dependent on it for about 95% of its freshwater resources. At the same time, precipitation in the Ethiopian highlands delivers some 85% of the Nile's flow measured at Aswan. But the prevailing river regime in combination with a history of political instability has so far prevented Ethiopia and other upstream countries from constructing major schemes to facilitate economic development or even flood protection for its population. Will increasing resource competition lead the states of the Nile Basin to full-scale inter-riparian conflict? Egypt with its very limited availabilty of arable land and already over-exploited and contested water resources must consider to at least partially abandon its pursuit of food self-sufficiency and examine alternative ways of securing its population's needs. Given growing pressures on the Nile's resources, the Basin states' current order will have to fundamentally shift from the current lower-basin domination to a more integrative regional system that appreciates both the upperriparians' contributions and development needs as well as the lower-riparians' dependence upon their cooperation. Considering the most recent trends in scientific literature on transboundary water resources, this transformation is expected to be accomplished through cooperative action rather than resisted against through inter-riparian conflict. This paper argues that Egypt will, despite the repeated threats uttered against underdeveloped upstream states' claims for more equal shares, lose its hitherto dominant position and engage in cooperative efforts exceeding current frameworks like that of the World Bank's NBI.

Struggle over the river of the Nile has had a long history.Egypt's claim to veto over the projects of the upper riparian countries and the demands of the latter to use the water of the Nile has caused continual conflicts of interest in the Nile Basin. This book has explored both past and the present struggle to use and/control the water of the river Nile. Egypt, backed by its dependency on the Nile water, the 1929 and 1959 agreements, and its military might has been a major user and defender of the Nile water; excluding the upper riparian countries. This book has answered its main question of whether the competing claims to use the Nile water would lead the region into water war, conflict or cooperation, or the co-existence of conflict and cooperation in the Nile Scenario. The question of War or Peaceful cooperation was analyzed through the contrasting theoretical frameworks of international relation theories of realism and liberalism. The findings, presented in short in this chapter, are structured around a number of points pertaining to water war, conflict or cooperation, and conflict-cooperation nexus

This book focuses on the impact that emerging water problems in the Middle East will have on U.S. strategic interests in that region. It provides an invaluable study for students of the Middle East as well as for seasoned analysts.

Ethiopians had to wait over a thousand years to be able to use their waters for their own development. Ethiopian emperors and leaders have tried to build a dam on the Nile River as part of their development efforts. Unfortunately, due to varying reasons and circumstances, including external pressure from countries near and far, geo- and hydro-political balance shifts, and internal conflicts, they were not successful in realizing their wishes. Instead of giving up, though, each leader contributed to different extents, by laying the foundation for and addressing challenges faced in making this dream a reality. The masterplan for the dam designed in 1964 has been the seed in waiting ever since, waiting for the right opportunity to arise for construction to start. Following the decade long negotiation and an agreement on the equitable use of the Nile waters by most Nile riparian countries, and the subsequent Cooperative Framework Agreement, the Ethiopian government started the construction of the GERD in 2011. The waiting had finally ended ... It was time for the seed to grow. Twelve years later, the construction program is almost done. The reservoir already holds billions of cubic meters of water, and the country has produced power from the first two turbines as part of the early power generation milestone. The seed has sprouted, and the tree is on track to be the tallest in Africa. In this six-part book, Dereje Befekadu Tessema discusses events that started thousands of years ago, culminating in the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). He also shares a recount of his trip from the sources to the mouth of the Nile River.