Denile on the Nile: Balancing Ethiopia's Equitable and Reasonable Utilization of the Nile and Egypt's Desire to Maintain the Status Quo

For nearly one hundred years, Egypt has maintained complete control and utilization of the Nile River under the 1929 Nile Agreement signed by Egypt and the United Kingdom. This agreement was amended in 1959, making Sudan a party but alienating the remaining Nile Basin States. Ethiopia has now posed the greatest challenge to the validity of these Agreements by constructing the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This Note argues that the longstanding bilateral 1929 and 1959 Nile Agreements can no longer maintain their enforceability against the rest of the Nile Basin because they violate customary international water law and infringe on Ethiopia’s right to equitable and reasonable utilization. It also urges negotiations to resume, not on the dam itself, but on the Nile Basin Initiative’s Cooperative Framework Agreement to alleviate this issue and future concerns. (Abstract from author.)