Introduction
In 1979, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said: “The only matter that could take Egypt to war again is water, ”and in 1988, then Egyptian Foreign Minister, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who later became the United Nations’ Secretary-General, predicted that the next war in the Middle East would be fought over the waters of the Nile, not politics . Since then Egypt has threatened to bomb dam development in Sudan. It has also challenged Kenya’s rhetoric denouncing the 1929 and 1959 agreements and desire to withdraw from them as acts of war, as well as warned Tanzania over its plans to drain the Lake Victoria. These Egyptian concerns may justify the cries of water wars. However, rather than accept these frightening predictions, we must examine them within the context of the Nile River basin and the relationships forged among the states that share its waters.
The Nile River is 6850km long. It is the world’s longest river and flows from the east and central African plains......
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Approximate Word Count: 14453
Approximate Pages: 56 (260 words per double-spaced page) |