Without the nile there is no Egypt. A centuries-old conflict and possible legal solutions for Ethiopia

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject African Studies - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, , language: English, abstract: This term paper aims at what legal tools Ethiopia can consider fighting Egypt's hegemony and revoke the Nile treaties to avoid future conflicts in the Horn of Africa over the use of the Nile waters and to improve the livelihood in region. My Thesis is that the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam poses no threat to Egypt and in this paper, I will provide a historical and geographical overview of the geopolitical conflict, followed by an explanation of the treaties that Egypt has invoked to date. I will then provide an overview of Ethiopia's legal development since 1959. At the end, I will then draw an appropriate conclusion. The following provides a geographical overview of the Nile River basin. According to an article in the New York Times 'Without the Nile, there is no Egypt.' (Walsh & Sengupta, 2020). The construction in 2011 of the largest dam 'Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam' also known as GERD has caused dispute for centuries between Egypt and Ethiopia, which despite several negotiations, also with the African Union as a mediator, cannot agree on the utilization of the dam. Egypt obtains most of the water it needs from the Nile which flows from Lake Tana in Ethiopia into the Blue Nile and from Lake Victoria originating in the White Nile, which crosses the borders of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Ethiopia on the other side is one of the countries with one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, at the same time over half of the population in the country live without electricity, which could be remedied by the construction and use of the dam. However, Egypt fears that Ethiopia could now gain control over the flow of the river, citing an old Anglo-Egyptian colonial treaty signed between the United Kingdom and Egypt on behalf of Ethiopia in 1929 that promises Egypt veto power and rights over the distribution and use of the Nile waters to this day.