Looming Water Wars of Africa, Cleopatra and her Wild Asp???

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? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??Neck of the woods

?Overwhelmed by cascading economic and political problems since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, this nation teeters from within even as it biggest threat may lie hundreds of miles away in the African highlands. Buried in the headlines is the future of the Nile River ? and thus the fate of Egypt itself. Mubarak long neglected the security danger posed by other nations' claims to the timeless pulse that provides 95% of this desert country's water, without which its delta farmlands would wither and its economy die. As poor African capitals increasingly challenge Cairo, however, the struggle has become one of the most pressing foreign policy tests for Egypt's new president, Mohamed Morsi. African countries at the river's source, notably Ethiopia, no longer feel bound by colonial-era agreements on water rights and are moving to siphon away larger shares of water for electricity, irrigation and business to meet demands of burgeoning populations. It is a skirmish involving diplomats, engineers and veiled threats of war over geography's blessings and slights and how nations in a new century will divvy up a river on whose banks civilizations have risen and tumbled. "All of Egyptian life is based on the Nile. Without it there is nothing," said Moujahed Achouri, the representative for the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization in Egypt. Morsi's acknowledgment of the water crisis and his desire to reach a compromise to protect his country's strategic and historical claim is evident????.?

Interesting that all our lives we have associated the Nile with Egypt and Egypt alone. Nobody thinks of Sudan or South Sudan or Ethiopia or Uganda or any other country when he or she hears the world ?Nile?. Thebes, Heliopolis, Luxor, Abu Simbel, the Ptolemies including Cleopatra and her famous wild Asp. Egypt owned the Nile in those days. Whoever ruled Egypt owned the Nile: ancient Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Macedonians, Romans, Muslim Arabs, Turks, British, in that exact chronological order. Not any more.
Yet Egypt with its uncontrollable population growth needs the Nile more than any other country. If this Islamist rule continues long, we can kiss the idea of population control in Egypt goodbye. Not very promising for sustainability or growth. Not very promising for peace along the Nile Valley.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com

Source: http://arabiadeserta.com/2012/11/16/looming-water-wars-of-africa-cleopatra-and-her-wild-asp.aspx?ref=rss

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