Evolving Discourses on Water Resource Management and Climate Change in the Equatorial Nile Basin

Published date01 June 2017
Date01 June 2017
DOI10.1177/1070496517696149
AuthorMarisa C. Goulden,Declan Conway,Nina Hissen
Subject MatterArticles
Article
Evolving Discourses
on Water Resource
Management and Climate
Change in the Equatorial
Nile Basin
Nina Hissen
1
, Declan Conway
2
,
and Marisa C. Goulden
3
Abstract
Transboundary water resources management in the Equatorial Nile Basin (EQNB) is
a politically contested issue. There is a growing body of literature examining water-
related discourses which identifies the ability of powerful actors and institutions to
influence policy. Concern about the effects of future climate change has featured
strongly in research on the Nile River for several decades. It is therefore timely to
consider whether and how these concerns are reflected in regional policy docu-
ments and policy discourse. This study analyzes discourse framings of water
resources management and climate change in policy documents (27, published
between 2001 and 2013) and as elicited in interviews (38) with water managers in
the EQNB. Three main discursive framings are identified which are present in the
discourses on both subjects: a problem-oriented environmental risk frame and two
solution-oriented frames, on governance and infrastructure development. Climate
change discourse only emerges as a common topic around 2007. The framings found
in the water resources management discourse and the climate change discourse are
almost identical, suggesting that discursive framings were adopted from the former
for use in the latter. We infer that the climate change discourse may have offered a
less politically sensitive route to circumvent political sensitivities around water
Journal of Environment &
Development
2017, Vol. 26(2) 186–213
!The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1070496517696149
journals.sagepub.com/home/jed
1
Department for International Development, Glasgow, UK
2
Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and
Political Science, London, UK
3
School of International Development and Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East
Anglia, Norwich, UK
Corresponding Author:
Nina Hissen, Department for International Development, Abercrombie House, Eaglesham Road, East
Kilbride, Glasgow G75 8EA, UK.
Email: nina.hissen@gmail.com
allocation and distribution between riparian countries in the EQNB. However, the
climate change discourse does not offer a lasting solution to the more fundamental
political dispute over water allocation. Moreover, in cases where the climate change
discourse is subsumed within a water resources management discourse, there are
dangers that it will not fully address the needs of effective adaptation.
Keywords
water governance, climate change, discourse analysis, Nile Basin, case study
Transboundary water resources management (WRM) in the Equatorial Nile
Basin (EQNB) is a politically contested issue. Disputes over water allocation
between the Nile Basin’s downstream riparian countries (Egypt and Sudan) and
upstream riparian countries (Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania,
Rwanda, Burundi, and Democratic Republic of Congo) are an important fea-
ture of water resources development in the EQNB. The 1959 Nile Waters
Agreement, from the colonial period, which allocates Nile water between
Egypt and Sudan, has in recent years been challenged by the upstream riparian
countries (Cascao, 2008). Since 2010, a new agreement to manage water in the
Nile Basin, the Cooperative Framework Agreement, has been opened up for
signature. The signing of this treaty by six of the Nile riparian countries and its
rejection by Egypt and Sudan shows that political divides over transboundary
water remain at the core of WRM in the basin.
The availability of and access to water are important prerequisites for social
and economic development in the Nile Basin. A growing industrial sector,
increase in irrigated agriculture, and rise in population and living standards
across the Nile Basin are increasing demand for water (Nile Basin Initiative
[NBI], 2012). Despite economic growth, about 80% of the Nile Basin’s popula-
tion is still employed in the agricultural sector (Central Intelligence Agency,
2015) and their livelihoods are closely linked to water access and availability.
Drought events such as in 2011 in East Africa and 2015 in Ethiopia show that
rainfall variability continues to exert a dramatic ef‌fect on livelihoods and food
security in parts of the Nile Basin (‘‘Horn of Africa,’’ 2011; ‘‘As Mozambique’s
Rivers,’’ 2016). The seven riparian countries (Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya,
Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and Democratic Republic of Congo) have a
combined population of 338 million and are home to about 30% of Africa’s
population (United Nations, 2015).
Climate change is expected to af‌fect water availability in the basin. Africa as a
continent is generally held to be one of the regions most vulnerable to anthropo-
genic climate change, due to its high exposure and low adaptive capacity
(Boko et al., 2007; Niang et al., 2014). Climate models project increased heavy
rainfall events in East Africa and amplif‌ication of existing water stress as a likely
consequence of climate change (Niang et al., 2014). These factors are likely to lead
Hissen et al. 187

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