Land-Water-Security Nexus: Changing Geopolitics in the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement

Abstract

This article extends the debate on the shift in water security governance in the Nile Basin countries. Water as an object of analysis was previously embedded in a depoliticized governance framework now faces politicization in the context of food, energy and climate change. In considering land-water-security nexus, population and climate variations drive Middle East and North Africa (mena) policies for the return of the state primacy in water governance. As Egypt and Sudan maintain their dynamics of hegemony in Nile Basin countries, Gulf States however are deploying proxy water diplomacy through investment in agricultural farmlands in Nile Basin countries. Increasing number of actors alter water access and security across formal and informal domains. The Nile Basin Cooperative Agreement (cfa) remains contested between upstream and downstream riparian states as being uncoordinated water management and development policies. Incorporating market and local users beyond the state gets politicized in securing water security. In view of this, this article hence suggests that power relations are not static, but subject to the changing circumstances. Egypt’s water security would be more sustainable when it engages cfa countries in a joint coordination and development projects.