Water Security in Egypt amid the Crisis around the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of water security in Egypt, associated with the implementation of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project. GERD raises serious concerns on the part of Egypt because of the possible reduction in the Nile River flow, which could lead to an economic and social crisis. In the context of the politicization of the water issue, the negotiation process to resolve it is complicated. Therefore it is important to find out whether it is possible to shift its perception from a threat to security to the possibility of mutually beneficial cooperation. Giving GERD an "existential" meaning for Egypt led to the use of the concept of securitization, according to which threats are created and deconstructed solely through speech acts. In order to clarify the prospects for resolving the water dispute with Ethiopia, an analysis of both the political and expert discourse of Egypt in relation to GERD is made. The main result was to explain the phenomenon of water securitization in Egypt as a stable political technology for managing internal processes, in contrast to the traditional approach to securitization as a policy of decisive action. This technology is the regulation of public fears by using the "resource argument" in order to reduce internal instability. The possibility of softening Egypt's position in the negotiation process on GERD and reducing the severity of the perception of the water issue depends mainly on the improvement of the socio-economic situation in the country.