Renaissance

 

 ‘Renaissance’

In their efforts to securitize the limited freshwater resource of the Nile, Ethiopia and Egypt have found themselves in what can only be described as a ‘cold war’. Mr Trump in late October boasted that Egypt may “blow up” the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and tensions between the nations who share this vital resource are brewing (Chothia, 2020). This lends us to examine the origins, media analysis and motives behind this hydropolitical issue.

The GERD is an important symbol of deep colonial roots entangled in present day hydropolitics. Transboundary water resource management in the continent is unlike another other shared resource in the continent or worldwide because historically “water law…[has only] been transboundary water law” (Lautze and girodano, 2005: pg.1054) pertaining to the inequitable and injudicious allocations of resources by colonial powers.

The Nile basins riparian’s can be split into two; the upstream users and the downstream. The upstream users such as Ethiopia and South Sudan and downstream riparian- North Sudan, Eritrea and Egypt. The sharp demarcations on the map of Africa are well documented in academic literature as a source of tension between ethnic groups but also over land and resources. The 1929 Anglo-Egyptian treaty and the 1959 bilateral agreements set a precedence of inequitable allocations of the Nile basin by downstream riparians (Kimenyi and Mbaku, 2015), namely Egypt. Egypt and North Sudan believe that these anachronistic agreements from the colonial era should be honoured and maintained in any new Nile Water agreements whereas all upstream countries have renounced these agreements. Understanding the historical resource management of the Nile basin can explain the current day tension between Egypt and Ethiopia over the construction of the GERD. Egypt’s de facto veto power has been shifted by changes to the political economy of upstream countries.  A rigid and tense power imbalance is now the result of previous power held by downstream countries and the current day hegemonic water resource management by upstream countries such as Ethiopia’s GERD project which will be a strong thematic area in my writing on water and politics.

The impact of governance, politics and legislation of the hydrological issues within the continent is immense. In an analysis of the water resource management and riparian law within the region we see a toxic seesaw relationship between hegemonic and counter hegemonic practices states use in order to maintain control or exert their dominance over these resources. Zeitoun and Warner (2006) note that hydro-hegemons such as Egypt ensure compliance from co-riparians by offering incentives, signing treaties that support their hegemonic positions of using superlative ideological tactics that shape the dominant discourse over the resource (Tawfik, 2016). In the case of GERD, governance is a key factor in the political elements of the water discourse. Conflict exists where there is a lack of “acknowledgment f the fundamental asymmetrical interdependencies that exist in a river basin between upstream and downstream units” (Savenijie and Zaag, 2008: 295), good governance pertains to the relinquishment of immediate and short-term individual benefits in favour of long-term equitable gains for all. The seesaw had shifted in favour of Ethiopia’s long term strategic economic development plans in its awakening called an ‘African Spring’.

References:

Lautze, J., and M. Giordano. (2005) “Transboundary Water Law in Africa: Development, Nature and Geography”. Natural Resources Journal 45, 4, pg. 1053-87.

Zeitoun, M. and J. Warner. (2006). “Hydro-hegemony: a framework for analysis of transboundary water conflicts”. Water Policy, 8, 435–460.

Savenijie, H.G. and Van der Zaag, P. (2008). “Integrated water resources management:  concepts and issues”. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 33, 290-297.

Chothia, F. (2020). Trump And Africa: How Ethiopia Was 'Betrayed' Over Nile Dam. BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-54531747.

Kimenyi, M. and Mbaku, J. (2015). Governing The Nile River Basin: Brookings Institutional Press.

Tawfik, R. (2016). “Reconsidering counter-hegemonic dam projects: the case of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam”. Water Policy, 18(5), pp.1033-1052.