Water politics in the Nile Basin

This has resulted in the development so far of 18,000 km2 (6,900 sq mi) of irrigated land, making Sudan the second most extensive user of the Nile, after Egypt.

The Egyptians practiced basin irrigation, a form of water management adapted to the natural rise and fall of the Nile River.

"When an explanation was required from the British and the Italian governments by the League of Nations, they denied challenging Ethiopia’s sovereignty over Lake Tana.

A reliable and self-enforcing mechanism that can protect the property rights of each stakeholder is essential if the principle of economically and ecologically sustainable international water development is to be applied.

In effect, this agreement gave Egypt complete control over the Nile during the dry season when water is most needed for agricultural irrigation.

It was formally launched in February 1999 by the water ministers of nine countries that share the river – Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo with Eritrea as an observer.

According to Swain and Fadel, political instability and poverty in the other nine riparian countries has limited their ability to move toward socioeconomic development of the Nile.

These types of industries are: chemical, electrical, engineering, fertilizers, food, metal, mining, oil and soap, pulp and paper, refractory, textile and wood.

[20] Schistosomiasis (a disease caused by parasitic worms) has been found in irrigation canals along with benthic cyanobacteria forming mats.

In the East – Delta drains – Faraskour, Serw and Hadous, samples of the water contained high levels of hookworms and other intestinal helminth eggs.

[24] Animal manure, dredged sediments from drains and sludge for fertilizer are leached and the contaminants are a major source of pollution.

They have been around since 1988 but have lacked structure and the inclusion of women, who are seen as contributors to pollution of irrigation canals since they wash clothes, dishes and animals in drainages.

Increasing Water User Associations (WUAs) and establishing a communication chain between them and government departments ar recommended.

The program equips agricultural land with subsurface drains, which are made of plastic pipes produced in government-owned plants in the Nile Valley and Delta.

In Giza, they have the largest governorate discharge of agricultural, industrial and domestic sewage that goes directly into the Nile through three drains without treatment.

Jan Selby and Thomas Gnyra, for instance, argue that whilst oil has been a principal cause of regional economic growth, adequate water supply has been a product.

Selby claims the 'water wars' is also weak in terms of failed forecasts,[4] and that conflict in the last century was more often due to oil than water.

Others argue that there are more important foreign policy concerns than water, which relate to ideological, economic and strategic relations with neighbouring states (and with outside powers), and access to 'goods' such as foreign aid and investment, oil revenues and remittances, illegal economies and military hardware make water conflict a marginal concern.