Tensions Rise Over Access to the Nile River

Five African countries assert claim to Nile waters, but Egypt does not want to share

Several central African countries where the Nile originates are asserting their rights to use the waters for irrigation and hydropower, but Egypt, where the fabled river is largest and flows into the Mediterranean Sea, has unequivocally stated its opposition to a new division of the Nile's water. There is even talk of war.

The fabled river begins high in the Ethiopian mountains where an ancient monastery watches over the sacred Gish Abbai spring. The waters bubbling out of the ground feed Lake Tana then spill into a gorge to become the Blue Nile.