Competition over the Nile watercourse is becoming a global crisis. As population growth, economic development, and urbanization increase the demand for water in the Nile Basin while climate change threatens its supply, the region faces a looming water crisis. An effective resolution of this multifaceted issue, which impacts 11 African countries, requires detailed multidisciplinary research. Until now the academic discourse regarding the Nile watercourse has been primarily dominated by monodisciplinary studies. This book fills that gap, providing a retrospective and prospective look at the Nile through multidisciplinary lenses—commingling history, hydro-politics, climate change, and law. It scrutinizes the legal and hydro-political trajectories of the Nile Basin, from the 4th century A.D. to 2022.
Mahemud E. Tekuya, JSD/Ph.D. (2022), McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific, is a research and teaching assistant at Oregon State University. He has published extensively on the Nile River and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Table
List of Abbreviations
1Introduction
1.1 The Global Water Crisis: Finite Supply, Growing Demand
1.2 The Looming Water Crisis in the Nile Basin
1.3 The Legal and Hydro-political Setting of the Nile Basin
1.4 Significance, Objective, and Organization of the Book
Part 1 Reconstructing the Legal and Hydro-political History of the Nile Basin 2The Politics of the Nile Basin: Water Imperialism, Hydro-political Cold War, and Hegemonic Dominance
Introduction
2.1 Pre-colonial Myths and Realities
2.2 The Nile in the Age of Colonialism: the Europeans Scramble for Nile, and the Tana Dam Concession
2.3 The Nile in the Age of Cold War: Hydro-political Rivalry and the Scramble for Dominance
Conclusion
3The Status of Colonial Nile Waters Treaties under International Law
Introduction
3.1 The Colonial Nile Waters Treaties
3.2 Immediate Post-colonial Dispute over the Colonial Nile Waters Treaties
3.3 The Colonial Nile Waters Treaties and State Succession
3.4 Fundamental Change of Circumstances
Conclusion
4Legal Arguments Based on the 1959 Agreement and Customary International Law
Introduction
4.1 The 1959 Agreement
4.2 Customary International Watercourses Law
Conclusion
Part 2 Post-Cold War Attempts to Change or Maintain the Status Quo 5Between Unilateralism and Cooperation: the Nile Basin in the Post-Cold War Era
Introduction
5.1 Bilateral Cooperative Initiatives
5.2 Multilateral Cooperative Initiatives
5.3 Back to Competition: Unilateralism as Post-Cold War Modus Operandi
6.1 Drafting and Negotiations of the
cfa
: Sisyphean Endeavors?
6.2 Basic Principles of the Cooperative Framework Agreement
6.3 Hydro-political Implications
Conclusion
Part 3 The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the Current Dispute over the Existing Nile Water Agreements 7The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Declaration of Principles
Introduction
7.1 The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: the Beginning of De-Facto Change in the Status Quo?
7.2 The Declaration of Principles on
gerd
: a New Paradigm?
Conclusion
8Sink or Swim: Unlocking the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Dispute
Introduction
8.1 First Filling and Annual Operation of the
gerd
8.2 The
gerd
Washington Talks: Illuminating the Sticking Points
8.3 The Role of the United States in the
gerd
Talks under International Law
8.4 Post-Washington Negotiations
8.5 The Way Forward: towards Unlocking the
gerd
Dispute
Conclusion
Part 4 Looking into the Future: towards Building a Flexible Legal and Institutional Framework in the Nile Basin 9Governing the Nile under Climatic Uncertainty: the Need for Climate-Proofed Basin-wide Treaty
Introduction
9.1 Building Flexibility into Treaty Regimes
9.2 Adapting the Nile Basin to Climate Change: Analysis of Treaty Flexibility
9.3 The
gerd
Negotiations: towards a Flexible Tripartite Agreement?
9.4 The Way Forward: towards a Basin-wide Climate-Proofed Treaty
Conclusion
10Overall Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Policymakers, researchers, scholars, and students interested in the sustainable management of international watercourses, the use and allocation of the Nile River, the legal regime governing the Nile Basin, or the history and geopolitics of North-eastern Africa.