Integrated Water Resource Management Policy in Africa: Case Study of the Nile Water and Its Politics

Abstract

The rational management of freshwater resources is one of the main concerns of human societies. The waters of the Nile, with a course of 6,671 kilometers, and a watershed that covers nearly 3 million square kilometers, is formed by the confluence in Khartoum, Blue Nile and White Nile. The White Nile has its source in Lake Victoria, a huge 69,485 square kilometer freshwater reservoir. But it is the Blue Nile, originating in Lake Tana (or Tsana) in Ethiopia, which, along with the other rivers of Ethiopia, contributes the most, by far, the flow of the Nile: 84% in average and not less than 95% during the flood season. All this water is shared by ten countries, mainly Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, but also Eritrea, Rwanda, Burundi and Congo-Kinshasa. For historical reasons, Egypt has always exploited most of the flow of the river. The size of its population and its almost absolute dependence on the waters of the Nile for its water supply makes this country particularly nervous about the attempts of the downstream countries to question the established sharing of water or to build new infrastructures. The Nile basin is experiencing recurring political tensions, but also many initiatives in the direction of joint management between all the countries concerned.

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