Publication

This study discusses the national and regional dilemmas of hydropolitics in the Eastern Nile Basin countries of Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt and Eritrea. At the national level, the study highlights the dilemma between the need to develop the available water resources to overcome the debilitating poverty on the one hand, and the risk of limited institutional and financial capacity to develop such water resources on the other. At the regional level, the paradox between the unifying and divisive factors is outlined. The author states that the shared waters and common cultural heritage unify the peoples of the Eastern Nile basin, while the colonial legacy, vestiges of the Cold War era, and unilateral and nationalistic strategies over water resource development have led to regional tensions and incompatible legal doctrines.