ABSTRACT
Boutros Ghali has long recognized the gravity of the water question in the Middle East. He is often quoted for his belief that “the next war in this region will be over the waters of the Nile.” Nicknamed the “water tower of Africa,” Ethiopia provides approximately 86 percent of the water that flows down the Egyptian Nile, yet it only utilizes 1% of this water. Composed of the ten riparian states—Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda—the Nile Basin Initiative aims to foster cooperation and development of the Nile Basin. Besides the Nile Valley, the “water war” debate in the Middle East focuses on the Jordan Basin and the sharing of water between the surrounding countries. Like Boutros Ghali’s Undugu and Sid Ahmed’s solar-power-cum-desalination scheme, Turkey’s plan to build a “Peace Pipeline” to export water throughout the region was designed to solve problems of trust and water scarcity in one comprehensive move.
