Sudan, the Nile and the Merowe Dam

Source: NASA Earth Observatory

The nearly always amazing NASA Earth Observatory chose this image of a dam in the desert on its site this morning as its Image of the Day. The accompanying brief article is well worth a read, for it encapsulates the problems of water supply and management in an extremely arid environment with a growing population. It also points to some of the problems of dams in the region and the conflicts over the use of the Nile, crucial for life in both Sudan and downstream Egypt.

The Nile's Waters: Conflict Between Egypt and Upstream Countries

Nile Valley

Source: Wikipedia Commons

The Nile is the classic example of an exotic river, rising in the highlands of Ethiopia and Central Africa then flowing through the deserts of Sudan and Egypt toward the Mediterranean.  In all of the countries through which the river and its tributaries flow there is a demand for water in excess of easily obtainable supplies from sources other than the river. Egypt, with a population rapidly approaching 80 million, is almost totally dependent on the Nile for water. Agriculture, industry, and domestic users draw water from the river, while the Aswan Dam uses the flow of the river to produce a large fraction of the country's electric energy. With growing populations, demand for higher standards of living, and climate change, demand for the Nile's water is all but certain to generate conflict in the not too distant future.

There is an excellent article on the conflict in today's (Sunday 26 November 2010) New York Times by Thanassis Cambanis, "Egypt and Thirsty Neighbors Are at Odds Over Nile." As I had not planned to discuss in detail the Nile, or much of any other water conflict in Africa, the article is particularly interesting as a supplement to the course, and I strongly recommend reading it.