ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the circumstances and options of two regionally hegemonic powers, Egypt and South Africa, claiming land and virtual water – or claiming it back. Fear of losing access to water explains Egypt’s obsession with control of the Nile: Egypt depends on the Nile like a diver on oxygen and has always upheld its rights to water, granted by the British and enforced in a treaty with Ethiopia in 1906 and water deals with Sudan in 1929 and 1959. While Egypt is already exceeding the quota agreed under the 1959 Nile agreement, it is set to claim more under a new Nile agreement as the New Valley land development project in the Western Desert gets under way. Egypt itself has meanwhile faced a counterhegemonic change of scene in the Nile arena by upstream Alleingang. Post-revolutionary Egypt has felt strong enough to rebuff a Saudi investor, while post-apartheid South Africa feels justified in rescinding earlier land takes.
