The Nile River plays an important role in the lives of more than 24% of Africa’s population as it flows in more than 11 countries of Africa. The Nile waters are significant in development planning, food and energy production. Trendingly, Egypt and Sudan have challenged Ethiopia’s decision to construct and fill the Great Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This is a huge project which supplies more than 80% of the water and reaches Egypt.
Treaties are needed for the allocation of water resources in the region. For this to happen, it is important to have accurate data on how much water there is. But global water scarcity data are based on rough observations. They are obsolete and don’t cover enough of the major transboundary river basins. This is due to factors like funding, maintenance cost, terrain and topography.
Data source: All Africa news