The Egypt-Ethiopia issue is very tricky. Why should Ethiopia give all of its water to Egypt? Ethiopia is a poor country with a growing population, and therefore they also have an equal claim to the waters of Nile. The Nile water treaty was signed between colonial powers, without taking into consideration anyone from Ethiopia or South Sudan. Most of the water originates from the two African nations (Ethiopia/South Sudan) and more than 95% of it is consumed by the two Arab nations (Egypt and Sudan). Either the Arab nations need to pay fee to use the water, or they need to stop using it.
In the regions through which rivers cross, there is a distinction between what are called “upstream countries” (which are the countries that are the source of the river), “downstream countries” which are the countries that are at the end of the length of the river, and “transit countries” which are the countries that The river crosses through it. In the case of the Nile River, the division was fair and took into account the peculiarities and needs of each country, given that Sudan was part of Egypt and was subsequently divided by colonialism. The problem today is not about the share of water that each country takes. Rather, it started after Ethiopia decided to build the Renaissance Dam, as it decided to fill the dam’s reservoir in record time, which will cause the river level to drop for a long time, which will lead to disastrous results for Egypt, which exploits the river for agricultural activities and energy production. The only solution is for Ethiopia to change its policy to fill the reservoir at separate intervals, which it has not accepted until today.