%0 Journal Article
%T China and the Nile River Basin: The Changing Hydropolitical Status Quo
%A M.K. Mahlakeng
%J Insight on Africa
%@ 0976-3465
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0975087817741043
%X The Nile River Basin (NRB), the world¡¯s longest river, faces a considerable challenge of population growth, degradation and depletion, and equitable water utilisation, which have become a threat to peace and environmental security in the region. Moreover, the hydropolitical landscape of the Nile has been dominated by Egypt. However, the NRB is experiencing a change in its hydropolitical status quo. China has emerged as a financier to upstream countries¡¯ hydropower projects, thus changing the upstream¨Cdownstream hydropolitical status quo. Although the existing governing regimes were not beneficial to upstream countries, China¡¯s role in the Nile hydropolitics is not providing an alternative and beneficial and/or win¨Cwin cooperative framework. As a result, the environmental and political landscape of the already fragile Nile region has become threatened, thus increasing the potential for conflict. The purpose of this article is to determine, through Homer-Dixon¡¯s environmental scarcity theory, the impact and effects of environmental scarcity in contributing to a nascent conflict. This study conceptualised Homer-Dixon¡¯s environmental scarcity theory as a theory that argues for the potential of conflict in transboundary river basins as a result of environmental scarcity. Environmental scarcity is triggered by a combination of population growth and excessive strain on dwindling renewable resources, exacerbated by unequal access to that resource
%K China
%K Nile River Basin
%K hydropolitics
%K environmental scarcity
%K Homer-Dixon¡¯s environmental scarcity theory
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0975087817741043