Introduction

Water has always been a subject of great concern for mankind, as the very survival of our species depends on it. Thus since remote time, men have had to sort out the issue of the water supply by carrying out hydraulic works whenever natural resources were not sufficient or constant enough. Therefore, “hydraulic civilizations” were born very early in the antiquity, as was Egypt’s for instance.

For nearly three thousand years, the fertile waters of the Nile River have been exploited and have provided some elements that led to the formation and development of this great civilization. Even today, the Nile River is a fundamental source of water for the Egyptian people.

However, even such a civilization is not immune from current water scarcity. For several years, Egypt has rejected to let its share of Nile waters decrease, as several countries upstream from the Nile expanded. Cairo assures that with its current share of Nile’s flow, the needs of the country will overtake the supply by 2017. Hence Egypt, this “gift of the Nile” as Herodotus said, might one day be dried up.

In such an alarming context, we may wonder how important the Nile River is as a survival factor for the Egyptian people.

FAIRE APPARAITRE LE PLAN DANS L’INTRODUCTION

I. Presentation of the Nile River

In this first part, we will present the Nile River by highlighting its unique geographical location, its hydrological cycle and finally its omnipresence throughout the centuries.

1) Geographical and hydrological situations

The Nile River is the major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is 6,650 kilo-meters long. It results from two major tributaries taking their source outside Egypt’s international borders, the White Nile and Blue Nile, as we can see on the picture 1 below. The latter is the source of most of the water and fertile soil, the former is the longer.

Picture 1: Map