Spór o zasoby wodne Nilu w środkowej i północno-wschodniej Afryce. Krótki zarys problemu

• Authors: Akhmed Dzhantamirov

Title variants

EN

A dispute about the Nile water supplies in the central and north-east Africa: a short sketch of the problem

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Rivers have always been in great importance in the process of arising and developing the human civilisation. Many ancient cultures were very powerful because of the huge rivers systems. Such civilizations as Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China came into being in the grand rivers valleys (Nil, Tiger, Euphrates, Indus, Ganges, Yangtze and Huang He). Nowadays those rivers also play the vital role because of the fact that of its state and affluence mainly depends the economic stability and in that connection depends also the politic stability in the countries that those rivers flow through. Those dependences and connections between people and rivers were best characterised by the Greek historian Herodotus in his saying "Egypt is a gift from the Nile". Contemporary domestic and international rules of using the rivers resources are regulated by the law rules. The international law rules mainly deal with law classification and the division of the international rivers, water transport on those rivers and the methods of making out the rivers boundaries. Determining the international law rules, effectively regulating the exploitation of the international rivers, face many obstacles. The reason of this situation are differences in exploiting the rivers resources in particular States, which depends on many aspects (economic, geographical, cultural, etc.). The very best example of the complexity of the international rivers systems matter is the Nile river. Present-da y, for the Nile's drainage basin states, establishing the new international law regulations and the arrangements concluding the rational exploitation and division of the rivers resources is the main problem. In the light of the II article of the 1966 Helsinki Rules on the Uses of the Waters of International Rivers, an international drainage basin is a geographical area extending over two or more States determined by the watershed limits of the system of waters, including surface and underground waters, flowing into a common terminus. According to this criterion, ten States count among drainage basin of the Nile river (those States are as follows: Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burundi, Ruanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Those States are now developing and theirs weak national economies are based on agriculture. The Nile as one of the biggest and most resourceful river on the world, is a great opportunity for those countries to develop. Unfortunately, present international legal system does not allow to exploit the Nile’s water resources in optimal and fair way, because this system does not embrace most of the States of the drainage basin. Such situation cause conflicts and tensions in relations between those States.

Keywords

EN

Nile river; Egypt; Conflicts

• Publisher: Instytut Nauk Politycznych, Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie
• Journal: Forum Politologiczne
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 10 - Przestrzeń i granice we współczesnej Afryce
• Pages: 391-402

Contributors

author

Akhmed Dzhantamirov

• Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie

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