page_title: Water conflict in the Middle East and North Africa
section_title: Water resources
hierarchical_section_title: Water conflict in the Middle East and North Africa / Nile River Basin / Water resources
caption_attribution_description: 17:42, 27 March 2005 Plugwash 320x208 (11607 bytes) (remove watermarks) 13:57, 20 October 2002 Aoineko 320x240 (13546 bytes) (New version with lighter text) 16:55, 31 July 2002 Aoineko 320x240 (42204 bytes) (update) 08:35, 31 July 2002 Aoineko 320x240 (64610 bytes)
context_page_description: Water conflict in the Middle East and North Africa primarily deals with three major river basins: the Jordan River Basin, the Tigris-Euphrates River Basin, and the Nile River Basin. The MENA region covers roughly 11.1 million square km. There are three major deserts in the MENA region:
  The Sahara Desert, comprising large sections of Libya and Egypt.
  Rub' al Khali, in the southern Arabian Peninsula.
  Baidat El-Sham, in the northern Arabian Peninsula.
  Additionally, much of Iran is covered in desert. Average annual rainfall is less than 100 mm in 65% of the region, between 100 and 300 mm in 15% of the region, and more than 300mm in the remaining region. The conditions that create conflict only expected to get worse and more complicated, as the full impacts of climate change on the Middle East and North Africa develop over the course of the 21st century.
context_section_description: The Nile River is an international water basin, running through 10 different sovereign nations. The Nile runs through Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Egypt and is considered to be the longest river in the world. The Nile is the only significant source of water in North Africa and 40% of Africa’s population lives in the Nile River Basin. The Nile has two major tributaries: the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile is the longer of the two, rising in the Great Lakes Region of central Africa. Its most distant source is unknown, located in either Burundi or Rwanda. From there, it flows through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda, and South Sudan. The Blue Nile originates from Ethiopia’s Lake Tana, flowing into Sudan from the southeast. In total, Ethiopian headwaters provides 86% of Nile River waters. The two major tributaries meet near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and flow north through Egypt and into the Mediterranean Sea.
caption: Nile River in Egypt
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