Issues in Transboundary Water Use in the River Nile Basin Area of Africa

Abstract

Water resource access as an integral part of everyday life serves multiplicity of purposes from agriculture to the hydroelectric power needs of most areas. However, in the Nile Basin region where major water sources for nations pass through international boundaries, limited access to water and lack of it can be a source of economic, political and ecological conflicts. Accordingly, in the last several years, the complexities and processes involved in transboundary water use under the ambit of hydropolitics in the Nile Basin region, continue to stoke anxieties and tensions among the nations in their strategic relationships. Given the high stakes, occasional responses to addressing hydrological stress can sometimes involve unilateral investment in the latest advances in technology to extract water, recourse to negotiated settlements and multilateral accords. Conversely, unilateral responses to water insecurity in such a region when not properly negotiated often create uncertainties and distrust that threaten regional stability. Even in the face of such volatilities, nations that were once at odds in the past over water insecurity are resorting to negotiations instead of the drumbeats of war in the Nile Basin of Africa. This is compounded by rapid growth in population, the threats of climate change through recurrent drought amidst high propensity to instability and poverty. Having said that, very little exists in the literature on current state of water politics of the study area using a mixscale model of GIS and descriptive statistics. At the same time, there has been limited coverage on the scale of water use, the different uses, and the distribution patterns in the study area. To bridge that void, the study will focus on transboundary water use within the purview of hydropolitics along the Nile Basin with emphasis on the issues, trends, factors, impacts and efforts. While the paper used mixscale techniques of GIS and descriptive statistics to analyze the trends. The results reveal notable disparity in hydrological parameters with evidence of water stress and abundance in various areas of the study area. For that, irrigation water use was more pronounced in the Northern nations of Egypt and Sudan coupled with cases of unmet water needs in the heavily populated places (Egypt and Ethiopia). Both nations experienced more cases of unmet water needs compared to the countries in the South. Notwithstanding, the higher volumes of rainfall and more per capita fresh water in the Sub Saharan Africa portion, than the North African zone, areas classified as water bodies and wetlands declined substantially throughout the Nile Basin. This could lead to depletion and growing anxiety. Considering the role of socio-economic, political and physical elements in all these, the paper proffered solutions ranging from education, conservation, mediation and negotiated settlements as well as effective policies, and mutually binding agreements among nations in the region on water use.