The Nile Dispute: Beyond Water Security

Jan 19, 2023 | Gashaw Ayferam
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As climate change accelerates, the Nile dispute has entered a new era of complexity, prompting regional states to compete for water, food, and energy security. The construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a non-consumptive hydropower project being built by Ethiopia on the Nile, has further complicated the relationship between Ethiopia and Egypt—two states that respectively frame the project as a matter of existential necessity and an existential threat. Yet, this conflict does not revolve only around physical resources but also extends to the very identity of the two states.