the nile river flows into the blue nile.
the nile river flows into the blue nile.
what body of water does the nile river flow into?
the blue nile
the nile river is an international water basin, running through 10 different sovereign nations. the nile runs through sudan, south sudan, burundi, rwanda, democratic republic of the congo, tanzania, kenya, uganda, ethiopia, and egypt and is considered to be the longest river in the world. the nile is the only significant source of water in north africa and 40% of africa’s population lives in the nile river basin. the nile has two major tributaries: the white nile and the blue nile. the white nile is the longer of the two, rising in the great lakes region of central africa. its most distant source is unknown, located in either burundi or rwanda. from there, it flows through tanzania, lake victoria, uganda, and south sudan. the blue nile originates from ethiopia’s lake tana, flowing into sudan from the southeast. in total, ethiopian headwaters provides 86% of nile river waters. the two major tributaries meet near the sudanese capital of khartoum and flow north through egypt and into the mediterranean sea.
water conflict in the middle east and north africa
ethiopia has also emerged as a major player in nile river development. in 1957 they announced their intentions to pursue unilaterally the development of nile river headwaters within ethiopian territory. by the year 2000, more than 200 small dams had been constructed along nile headwaters. collectively, the dams will use nearly 500 million mcm/y of the nile’s annual flow. ethiopia is the only nile river riparian to make a legal claim to nile waters other than egypt or sudan since the nile waters treaty was signed in 1959. like in egypt, population growth in ethiopia has led to an increase in water consumption. ethiopian population growth exceeds that of egypt, and with populations of roughly equal size, ethiopia’s water demands may soon exceed egypt’s. irrigating only half of ethiopia’s arable lands would reduce water flow to downstream sudan and egypt by 15%.
water conflict in the middle east and north africa