The fundamental problem is that there are far too many people in the region for the available resources,water and land.The environmental problems caused by population overshoot are horrendous and this will probably be one of the first areas in the world where the coming resource wars will break out.

No nation with leadership with any pretension to sanity will consciously increase their population beyond a safe level of sutainability.The emphasis is on SAFE - Australia,take note.

Poor Egypt - the Aswan high dam, and further cascading proposals of desperation in the grab for fresh water. And Fred Pearce has his finger on the pulse: his answers to the problem are efficiencies, and control of consumption.
That might be reasonable for a constant set of needs; but Fred has a blind eye when it comes to ever-increasing consumers – as usual in his writings.
If there is serious pressure on water as a resource now, the pressures are on the way to doubling as time goes on.
The countries he lists, at present rate of increase, will double their populations in the following time frames: Egypt 35 years; Ethiopia 22; Uganda 19; Kenya 27; Tanzania 35; Rwanda 25. From just less than 300 million now, to about 550 in one generation; and when that generation’s time has come, they will have had from Fred Pearce no assistance towards minimizing the growth of the numbers of their increasingly desperate needy. And continue increasing – if nature does not intervene in its usual inhuman way.

Water can be a political weapon. That is why Kashmir could never be allowed to pass into the hands of Pakistan.

That is why the wars of the future will be over water and all it contains and means.
The first shots were fired off the coast of Iceland during the Cod Wars in the Sixties. That is why Somalis have been forced to take the law into their own hands and resort to what we today call "piracy".
No one gives a damn that multi-national fishing ships have trawled all but the last remnants of fish life from Somali waters, leaving the coastal people virtually nothing to live on.

socratease

As usual unrepentant people fail to see the problem. NO authority, God gave the authority to Adam and he chose to serve the devil, and sever his connection by not believing God. Read Gen 2 & 3 Then read Mark 12. The devil knows his authority, to rob, kill, and destroy. Unless man humbles himself and goes back to God(repent) he will continue on the devils merry way of pride, robbing, killing, and destroying Gods creation. Happy problem solving boys.

I can only agree to this - Egypt is a heritage of the ancient times and people living there just use this cultural resource. They should do more to maintain this wonder but they do not do their best only utilise and abuse this heritage.