The River Nile and Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam: challenges to Egypt’s security approach

ABSTRACT

There are increasing challenges to Egypt’s security approach to the River Nile. The river is under immense pressure. This paper examines the significance of the Nile for Egypt and the factors and problems of diminishing its waters. It reviews Egypt’s long-time policy on the Nile and concludes that this policy is difficult to maintain in the face of the present and future challenges. It recommends a non-security multilateral solution for the benefit of all parties.

KEYWORDS:

• Egypt
• Ethiopia
• Nile
• Grand Renaissance Dam

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Source: http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/the-politics-of-water-what-we-know-about-the-grand-ethiopian-renaissance-dam.

2. There is little economic integration and limited common interest among the Nile riparian states and they are not very much connected through transportation systems. So apart from the Nile there is little that unites them. This is worrying for future cooperation among them. See: Bart Hilhorst, 2016, Water Management in the Nile Basin: A Fragmented but Effective Cooperative Regime, Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University in Qatar, No. 17.

3. Source: http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/the-politics-of-water-what-we-know-about-the-grand-ethiopian-renaissance-dam.