![]() ![]() Without that water, there would have been no food, no people, no state, and no monuments. The Nile has been essential for civilization in Egypt and Sudan. The stakes are perhaps even higher for the millions of people who owe their livelihood and very existence to the Nile’s waters. The stakes could not be higher for the new leaders in Egypt and Ethiopia, President Mohamed Morsi and Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, as well as Sudan’s long-time President, Omar El Bashir. ![]() Today, however, Ethiopia is building the Grand Renaissance Dam and, with it, Ethiopia will physically control the Blue Nile Gorge-the primary source of most of the Nile waters. Christian Ethiopian kings have warned Muslim Egyptian sultans of their power to divert waters of the Nile, often in response to religious conflicts. Upriver Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania argue that they too need the water that originates on their lands. Downriver Egypt and Sudan argue that they have historic rights to the water upon which they absolutely depend-and in 1979 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat threatened war on violators of what he saw as his country’s rights to Nile waters. Whether or not there were such plans in 2012, there is a long history of threats and conflicts in the Nile River Basin. The Egyptian and Sudanese governments denied the reports. In the fall of 2012 newspapers around the world reported on a Wikileaks document, surreptitiously acquired from Stratfor, the Texas security company, revealing Egyptian and Sudanese plans to build an airstrip for bombing a dam in the Blue Nile River Gorge in Ethiopia. On water and environmental issues, readers may also want to see these Origins articles: World Water Crisis The Changing Arctic Climate Change and Human Population Global Food Crisis and Over-Fishing. Located on the Blue Nile twenty five miles from the Ethiopian border with Sudan, the Grand Renaissance Dam begins a new chapter in the long, bellicose history of debate on the ownership of the Nile waters, and its effects for the entire region could be profound.įor more on the recent history of Africa, please see these articles on Politics in Senegal, the Darfur Conflict, Piracy in Somalia, Violence and Politics in Kenya, Women in Zimbabwe, and Sport in South Africa. ![]() Now Ethiopia, one of eight upriver states and the source of most of the Nile waters, is building the largest dam in Africa. Over the past century both of these desert countries have built several dams and reservoirs, hoping to limit the ravages of droughts and floods which have so defined their histories. Egypt and Sudan are utterly dependent on the waters of the Nile River. ![]()
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