Understanding the impact of recent crises on the hydropolitics and food security of the Nile River Basin: a discourse analysis

The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest river in the world, north-flowing into the Mediterranean Sea in north-eastern Africa. A research gap is still represented by the analysis of how discourses on food security may have shaped water management, power relationships, and hydro-social dynamics.  

The present contribution will focus on three main countries (Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan), with a particular focus on some emblematic events that happened in the last years, mainly related to the development of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the Ukrainian War and its impact on food security, and the recognition of the impacts of Climate Change at the Global level.

Discourse analysis is developed on a database of official documents generated in recent United Nations General Assemblies and Security Councils, based on the framework developed by Bréthaut et al., 2021. Discourses are defined as formal ways of thinking that can be expressed through language. They represent a way of organizing knowledge that structures the constitution of societal relations through the collective understanding of discursive logic and the acceptance of the discourse as a fact. The analysis of discourses created by different actors involved in a hydropolitical dispute, and the power of such discourses in shaping concepts and practices related to water management, can highlight and identify how hydropolitics evolve, and when, why, and how we can expect opportunities for cooperation, or threats of conflicts over water resources.

 

Bréthaut, C., Ezbakhe, F., McCracken, M., Wolf, A., & Dalton, J. (2021). Exploring discursive hydropolitics: a conceptual framework and research agenda. International Journal of Water Resources Development.