Hydropolitics within Africa

  To understand Egypt’s problem with the building of the dam we have to look at the colonial ties to ownership of the Nile. A piece published in ‘The Conversation’ discusses the colonial past that is at the root of the dam politics at play now. From this article I learnt that after the British occupation of Egypt they still had strong influence in the country till 1956 when the last of the British troops left. Due to this the Nile was mainly managed by the British who benefitted from the irrigation the Nile provided in Egypt for the textiles industry ( The Conversation, 2021 ). In 1929 Egypt signed an agreement with Britain that at the time gave them veto power over any construction on the Nile and its tributaries that would affect the flow downstream. This was followed by a 1959 agreement between Sudan and Egypt that effectively allocated all the water to said countries, ignoring the water requirements of the 9 other riparian countries upstream, despite them supplying the water ( ...

Why the Dam is Being Built The GERD. Source: webuild Construction began in 2011 and in 2020 they began filling the dam, with the fourth filling occurring in September 2023. With this, Ethiopia has said that they have finished filling the reservoir ( BBC News, 2023 ). The main aim of this dam is electricity production, with this being the biggest hydroelectric power plant in Africa, it also cannot be used for irrigation because the region doesn’t have the capacity for development in irrigated agriculture ( Salman, 2016 ). The dam could double the production of electricity in Ethiopia, which would have a significant impact on the economy as currently roughly only half of the population have access to electricity. This increase in electricity output will hopefully increase both social development and economic, as more businesses and households gain reliable access to electricity. So, whilst this dam will make significant positive change for Ethiopia, it has inevitably created tensions wit...

In this blog I provide the geographical context of the region, to give a better understanding of why there are transboundary water conflicts, and how they could worsen over time as water scarcity grows.  Climate variability along the Nile stems from the fact that the basin stretches from a latitude of 4° S to 31° N, meaning it spans 35 degrees from the northern subtropics to just below the equator ( Camberlin, 2009 ).   Northern subtropical climates are generally characterised by arid conditions and minimal rainfall, whereas at the equatorial zone there are higher levels of rainfall, and this means that countries north of the Nile are heavily reliant on the rainfall near the equator to recharge the Nile ( Onyutha and Willems 2015 ). It comes as no surprise that the runoff generated by both the Ethiopian highlands and the equatorial lakes provide a large volume of river discharge ( Senay et al. 2014 ). However, as the water flows further north there are large levels of water lo...