nile | GlobalPost

Photos: With Nile River only miles away, Ethiopia's farmers struggle for water

Ben SolomonApril 9, 2012 11:33

Ethiopians hope to finally wrest some control of the Nile, and its life-giving water, from Egypt.

Could Egypt run out of water by 2025?

Erin CunninghamApril 9, 2012 06:00

KAFR AL SHEIKH, Egypt and MARAWI, Ethiopia — With rapid population growth, limited agricultural land and recent challenges to its majority share of Nile waters by upstream states, the United Nations now says Egypt could be water scarce by 2025. It is not that Egyptians are necessarily thirsty. Domestic consumption of freshwater in local households makes up less than 20 percent of the roughly 64 billion cubic meters of water Egypt consumes each year, 55.5 billion of which come from the Nile. The issue lies in Egypt’s pressing need to feed its exploding population through the expansion and irrigation of the country’s farmland — just 6 percent of its total area — with the same or an even lesser amount of water.

Egypt’s next revolution

Erin CunninghamApril 9, 2012 06:00

CAIRO — Pouring onto the streets in an unprecedented uprising last year, Egyptians toppled their dictator of three decades with resonating, populist chants for “bread, freedom and social justice.” But while more freedom and social justice remain a possibility for Egypt, bread might be harder to come by. The country’s growing population, and its loosening grip on the Nile, are threatening its water supply, weakening its capacity to irrigate crops and boosting the desert nation’s reliance on food imports from an increasingly volatile global commodities market. It’s a dangerous situation many fear could lead to renewed political strife.

Egypt is losing its grip on the Nile

Erin CunninghamApril 9, 2012 06:05

A 1959 colonial-era treaty brokered by Great Britain gave Egypt, and to a lesser extent Sudan, unrivaled “historic rights” over nearly all of the Nile River’s resources. But now all that could be changing as upstream states like Ethiopia and Burundi seize on Egypt’s post-revolution political uncertainty to finally wrest at least some control of the world’s longest river.