Challenges and prospects of cooperation over the Nile River: State policies and determinants

Abstract

The study examines challenges and prospects of Cooperation in the Nile River basin. The study is underpinned by the significance of pivotal riparian state thereby considers Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan as pivotal riparian states. The study identified that domestic politics, geopolitics and water regimes are major determinant factors of cooperation in the basin. Egypt’s unchanged domestic legal system and its contentious approach towards Nile basin states are the major domestic and geopolitical factor affecting cooperation respectively. Besides to this, the mere existence of water regimes, either in the form of legal agreements or institutional attempts, does not bring effective cooperation. The finding of the study shows that, domestic politics, geopolitics and water regimes are indeed determinant factors for the cooperative and conflictive nature of water sharing in the basin. The level of their impact however is neither equal nor constant. Importantly, these three factors affect and condition one another. The dynamic nature of these factors would make the prospect of cooperation to be a fantasy in the basin.