This archive report was first published on 22 October 2019.
The River Nile is a lifeline for Egypt, supporting the livelihoods of over 160 million people.
However, its source and course traverse multiple countries, rendering it impractical for Egypt to dictate its use.
As the downstream state, Egypt has legitimate concerns about the Nile's use by upstream states, particularly Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile.
Published in 2019, the Nile agreement signed between Egypt and Ethiopia in 2015 aimed to address these concerns by revising the 1929 Anglo-Egyptian treaty.
The 1929 treaty granted Egypt 48 billion cubic meters and Sudan 4 billion cubic meters of the Nile's estimated 84 billion cubic meters annually.
However, the treaty's provisions were later revised in 1959, increasing Egypt's allocation to 55.5 billion cubic meters and Sudan's to 18.5 billion cubic meters, without considering the needs of upstream states.
As Ethiopia's GERD project progresses, Egypt's concerns about water diversion and interference with the river's flow have intensified.
While Ethiopia asserts that the dam will not block water from reaching Egypt, Cairo remains skeptical, highlighting the need for equitable distribution of the Nile's waters and mutual respect for the sovereignty of all stakeholder states.
