Nile Basin Asymmetries: A Closed Fresh Water Resource, Soil Water Potential, the Political Economy and Nile Transboundary Hydropolitics

Abstract

The Nile Basin is characterised by a number of asymmetries. First, the water endowments and use are asymmetrical. The eight upstream riparians provide all the surface water in the basin but they make negligible use of these surface waters. Downstream Egypt and the Sudan are arid but benefit from a notional total use of the flowing surface waters. A second asymmetry is that the upstream riparians are also well endowed with soil water. Soil water cannot be shared except in traded com- modities and these non-shareable soil waters are probably twice the volume of the technically shareable surface waters. The third asymmetry is in adaptive capacity. Egypt has adapted to its serious water deficits since the early 1970s by achieving water security by diversifying and strengthening its economy. Its diversified economy has enabled it to import food and embedded virtual water. The upstream riparians have achieved much lower levels of adaptive capacity. The fourth and most important asymmetry is a consequence of Egypt’s adaptive capacity. There is a marked asymmetry in power relations in the Nile Basin. Egypt is the basin hegemon. A hegemon is a first amongst assumed equals. Its interests have been asserted in basin hydropolitics and are expressed in de facto allocations and in the existing Nile Water Agreements – 1929 and 1959 – between Egypt and the Sudan. Its interests continue to be influential across the basin in the initiatives that emerged in the 1990s as an organisation established in 1999 – The Nile Basin Initiative.