Infographic: Wealth of the Nile — Basin’s Countries, Dams, and GDP per capita

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Controversy over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which will become the largest dam in Africa when it is completed in 2017, stems from a long history of disputes along the Nile River’s 10 countries.

The Nile — the longest river in the world — flows 6,853 kilometers (4,258 miles) from Africa’s central heartland north to the Mediterranean Sea through 10 countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Through arid Egypt and Sudan, the river forms a green valley in the vast desert landscape before fanning out into the fertile Nile Delta.

The construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) along the Blue Nile has increased competition between Egypt, the wealthiest country along the Nile, and Ethiopia, one of the poorest in terms of GDP per capita, over the right to use the Nile’s water resources. Click the image below to learn more.

Infographic © Codi Yeager-Kozacek / Circle of Blue

Infographic: Wealth of the Nile includes the per capita GDP of the 10 Nile River Basin countries, as well as the dams currently constructed along its length. Click image to enlarge.

Joanne (Yuan) Yao, a PhD student in International Relations at the London School of Economics (LSE), is currently reporting for the Circle of Blue news desk. She holds degrees from the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins SAIS. Her dissertation focuses on cooperative institutions that govern transboundary rivers. Infographic by Codi Yeager-Kozacek, Circle of Blue’s Hawaii-based reporter. This infographic was made to accompany Yao’s article, Super Dam: Egyptian Concern for Nile Water Security Spurs Cooperation Over Ethiopia’s New Dam.