This paper reviews literature on the Nile basin co-operation and issues related to this process, focusing on more recent publications. The literature on utilization and management of the Nile waters related to basin-wide cooperation efforts has been growing fast during the last decade. This review discusses and covers a wide range of issues, which include: debate on water scarcity and its potential consequences in general, and its implications for the Nile basin countries in particular; legal aspects of utilization of the Nile waters focusing on the UN Watercourse Convention of 1997; conflicts and major attempts at cooperation; divergent views and interests of the basin countries; and challenges and prospects of the recent basin-wide cooperation.

This book examines social, economic and political issues in West, Eastern and Southern Africa in relation to borders, human mobility and regional integration. In the process, it highlights the innovative aspects of human agency on the African continent, and presents a range of empirical case studies that shed new light on Africa’s social, economic and political realities. Further, the book explores cooperation between African nation-states, including their historical socioeconomic interconnections and governance of transboundary natural resources. Moreover, the book examines the relationship between the spatial mobility of borders and development, and the migration regimes of nation-states that share contiguous borders in different geographic territories. Further topics include the coloniality of borders, sociocultural and ethnic relations, and the impact of physical borders on human mobility and wellbeing. Given its scope, the book represents a unique resource that offers readers a wealth of new insights into today’s Africa.

The Nile River is the longest river in the world covering nearly 7,000 kilometres. It traverses ten countries in Africa, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, with South Sudan as the eleventh riparian state once it acquires its sovereignty. Of the more than 300 million inhabitants in the ten riparian states, the Nile River Basin is home to nearly 160 million people. The interlocking controversies surrounding the utilisation of the waters of the Nile River and the resources therein have centered on the 1929 Anglo-Egyptian and the 1959 Egypto-Sudanese treaties, which have largely ignored the interests of the upstream states. Through the initiative of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) established in 1999, the riparian states concluded, in 2010, the Agreement on the River Nile Basin Cooperative Framework (CFA) based on the principle of equitable and reasonable utilisation, the objective of which is to establish durable legal regime in the Nile River Basin. This book addresses the complexities inherent in the colonial and post-colonial treaties and agreements and their implications on the interests of the riparian states and the region in general. It is the first book of its kind that covers the ten riparian states in a single volume and deals comprehensively with politico-legal questions in the Nile River Basin as well as conventions on the international water courses and their relevance to the region.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) will not only be Africa’s largest dam, but it is also essential for future cooperation and development in the Nile River Basin and East African region. This book, after setting out basin-level legal and policy successes and failures of managing and sharing Nile waters, articulates the opportunities and challenges surrounding the GERD through multiple disciplinary lenses. It sets out its possibilities as a basis for a new era of cooperation, its regional and global implications, the benefits of cooperation and coordination in dam filling, and the need for participatory and transparent decision making. By applying law, political science and hydrology to sharing water resources in general and to large-scale dam building, filling and operating in particular, it offers concrete qualitative and quantitative options that are essential to promote cooperation and coordination in utilising and preserving Nile waters. The book incorporates the economic dimension and draws on recent developments including: the signing of a legally binding contract by Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to carry out an impact assessment study; the possibility that the GERD might be partially operational very soon, the completion of transmission lines from GERD to Addis Ababa; and the announcement of Sudan to commence construction of transmission lines from GERD to its main cities. The implications of these are assessed and lessons learned for transboundary water cooperation and conflict management.

The effective and efficient management of water is a major problem, not just for economic growth and development in the Nile River basin, but also for the peaceful coexistence of the millions of people who live in the region. Of critical importance to the people of this part of Africa is the reasonable, equitable and sustainable management of the waters of the Nile River and its tributaries. Written by scholars trained in economics and law, and with significant experience in African political economy, this book explores new ways to deal with conflict over the allocation of the waters of the Nile River and its tributaries. The monograph provides policymakers in the Nile River riparian states and other stakeholders with practical and effective policy options for dealing with what has become a very contentious problem—the effective management of the waters of the Nile River. The analysis is quite rigorous but also extremely accessible.

The Nile Basin is a vast and varied area of 350 million people. Parts of the basin have become the very symbols of African misery, suffering drought, genocide, state failure and aid dependency. At its heart lies the Nile itself. Yet while the importance of the river is well documented for the colonial period there is no comprehensive account of its management after independence. The River Nile in the Post-Colonial Age details the modern development of the Nile Basin and of the efforts to manage its waters. With important new material by researchers from each of the countries through which the Nile passes, it provides an indispensable aid to understanding the complex history of the basin, the politics surrounding it and the efforts being made to jointly manage it.