INTIKHAB AHMAD

The Nile river basin is located in the water scarce arid/semi-arid region of the African continent, where eleven riparian countries struggle to satisfy their own water requirements. Therefore, managing and sharing Nile water in an equitable manner is a complex matter, especially with respect to the existing power balance in the region. For the past decade, the Nile basin has undergone many economic and political changes that are likely to encourage modifications in the balance of power. Powerful lower riparian countries, particularly Egypt and Sudan, exercise their hegemonic and historical rights to utilise a larger share of river water, whereas other comparatively weaker upper riparian states like Ethiopia strive to enhance their water share or even get their legitimate due. With the emergence of South Sudan, the situation in the basin has become even more complex.

Introduction

Hydro-politics examines conflicts and cooperation in countries over shared water resources. Globally, the strategies used in hydro-politics are being modified due to changes in regional power balances and weak international institutions. Political processes that include the water sector in any region, construct the hydro-political relations between countries, ranging from benefits through cooperative water use to inequitable aspects of hegemonic leadership.

This results in competition over water use in the different water sharing countries and to the establishment of hydro-hegemony. Hydro-hegemony is the consolidated control over water resources, which favours the most powerful country in the region and determines the use of water. (Mark Zeitoun and Jeroen Warner, “Hydro-Hegemony: A Framework for Analysis of Transboundary Water Conflicts”, Water Policy, vol8, no5, 2006, p435).

Antonio Gramsci (Selections from the Prison Notebooks, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971) first developed and defined the concept of hegemony as “the political power that flows from intellectual and moral leadership, authority or consensus as distinguished from armed force”. That is, the political power so obtained becomes the dominant hegemony by authority rather than coercion. Hegemony involves legitimacy and some form of understanding resulting from consent.

Both the theoretical concepts of hegemony and counter-hegemony are influenced by Gramscian theory as well as neo-Gramscian views.

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