Water, Politics and Development in Africa

Hi everyone ! Today I will analyze more precisely the case of the Nile Basin because it allows to address several issues of hydropolitics in Africa and to observe the panel of problems posed by sharing water. The case of the Nile Basin is a very good example of what is happening in many other parts of Africa and even if this case is well known, it remains nevertheless very interesting to this blog. Reminder : the Nile is shared by 11 countries and is the 3rd largest watershed in the world, covering 10% of the African territory. It is formed by the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile at Khartoum, as we can see on the map above. Of course, water plays a major role in the economic and political relations of this region and it is here that the concept of ‘hydropolitics' takes on its full meaning : 'the study of conflicts and cooperation around the sharing of water resources’ (Turhan, 2020) . In an international context, the lack of water and the perception of having a ...

 Hi everyone and welcome to this blog !!  I’ve decided to start by introducing why I think that relations between Africa, water, development and politics are very interesting to study, by questioning the nature of these relationships (co-dependence, causality, effect) in order to identify several general problems that will guide us throughout this blog.   Engraving of the Berlin Conference, 1885      I would like to start with what I think is one of the bases of the problems : the European political vision of Africa and the world. Indeed, the conference of Berlin in 1885 brought together representatives of several European countries to decide on the sharing and borders of future African countries (regardless of local populations). The very principle of this meeting is based on a previous principle which was discussed with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 between several European countries that create the idea that a state should have fixed borders to defend...