Ongoing disagreements over technical and legal issues concerning the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile led to new talks being initiated between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia

Economic growth is also threatening the quantity and quality of Egypt’s water resources, exacerbating the existing issue of shallow groundwater contamination from industrial chemicals and excessive fertilizer and pesticide

Water in Egypt is vulnerable to three main risk factors: High pollution and increasing water costs as a result of pumping water over and over again and without treatment.

Transboundary water management in the Jordan River basin and the Blue Nile basin has historically been difficult. While water diplomacy surrounding the Jordan River is obstructed by decades of geopolitical conflicts between the riparians and unilateral infrastructure projects, cooperation over the Blue Nile has been hampered by conflicting views on water ownership and resource utilization for most of the 20th and 21st century.