AGAINST THE CURRENT: EGYPTIAN WATER POLICY FOR A NEW DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

Abstract

This thesis presents an analysis of Egyptian water policy in light of rapidly changing domestic and regional circumstances. It analyzes proposed technical solutions to scarce water, Egyptian and Ethiopian domestic preferences, and their dynamics within the Nile River basin. It represents an attempt to identify the linkages between Egyptian domestic water management and international negotiation on the Nile River, the constraints of Egyptian and Ethiopian domestic politics, and suggestions for how to overcome those constraints. Based on case studies and interviews in Ethiopia and Egypt, this thesis suggests that Egyptian water policy has yet to respond to the growing power of Ethiopia and the resulting diminution of Egypt’s hydro-hegemony (its primacy within the basin). To do so, and achieve a permanent Nile solution that serves its interests, Egyptian policy makers should focus on domestic political constraints on water negotiation: the Egyptian securitization rhetoric, the wasteful and overlarge agriculture sector, the ineffective governmental structure, and the water entitlement system. Finally, in an analysis of shifting power trends in the Nile River Basin, it suggests that Egypt should act quickly to institutionalize the power it currently holds on the Nile through bi- or tri-lateral negotiations with Ethiopia. Collectively, the recommendations presented here form a framework Egypt might consider to secure water interests as its hydro-hegemony declines.