298 Scarcity and Surfeit
During the early period of the pharaohs, irrigation in Egypt was largely
dependent on the floods coming from the Ethiopian highlands. The scarcity
or abundance of rainfall in Ethiopia, therefore, was strongly related to har-
vest sizes in Egypt. Egyptian rulers used to believe that the reduction of the
flow of the Nile was due to Ethiopian rulers diverting the flow of the Nile. In
some periods, Egyptian pharaohs sent tribute to Ethiopian kings for them not
to obstruct the Nile waters.201 There were also instances when Ethiopian
kings threatened to divert the course of the Nile, particularly when it was
believed that Orthodox Copts in Egypt were being persecuted.
Irrigated agriculture expanded continuously in Egypt, enabling cultivation
of large land areas under perennial irrigation by the end of the lgth century. It
was, however, after Britain colonised both Egypt and Sudan that a series of
ambitious schemes were proposed to develop the Nile waters in upstream
countries in order to increase water flow downstream (in Egypt). These plans,
otherwise known as the century storage schemes, were later abandoned main-
ly due to Egyptian fears that its economic fortunes would be tied inextricably
to the actions of upstream basin states. The Egyptians preferred to construct a
giant over-year storage dam at Aswan that would be located entirely within
Egyptian territory. This, it was felt, would enable Egypt to finally secure under
its control water supplies from the Nile, rather than depend on delicate
resource-sharing arrangements with upstream basin states.
The Aswan High Dam may have served to enhance Egyptian control of the
national water supply by protecting it from fluctuations of the annual flow of
the Nile coming from upstream countries, particularly from the Ethiopian
plateau. It also serves as a political symbol of national security to Egyptians.
However, the dam had many critics from its inception because of its ques-
tionable economic viability and the fact that the loss through evaporation
from the dam is among the highest in the
British colonisers tried to secure water supplies from the Nile for Egypt
through a series of agreements that invariably sought to invoke Egypt's first
claim to use Nile waters. One of the main concerns in this period was to
ensure that the major flow of the Nile originating in Ethiopia should not be
interfered with. Accordingly, Britain signed a protocol in 1891 to which Italy,
as the colonial power in Eritrea, undertook not to construct works on the
Atbara (Tekezze) that might modify the downstream flow of the Nile. In 1902,
Britain, on behalf of Sudan, concluded an agreement with Emperor Menelik
of Ethiopia. One of the provisions stated that Ethiopia should not undertake
any construction works on the Blue Nile, Lake Tana or the Sobat (Baro-
Akobo) that would reduce the flow of the Nile except with the agreement of
Britain and Sudan.
During the post-independence era, the most significant agreement was the
1959 Nile Waters Agreement that allocated the entire flow of the Nile between
Egypt and Sudan. The allocation was based on the annual flow of the Nile