Nile River Basin example essay topic

The Nile is the longest river in the world which is located in Africa. It spans itself from Lake Victoria in east central Africa to Egypt. It flows generally north through Uganda, Sudan, and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea, for an approximate distance of 5,584 km From its remotest headstream, the Luvironza River in Burundi, the river is 6,695 km long. The river basin has an area of about 3,350,000 sq km. Its average discharge is 3.1 million livres per second. The lower course of the river in Egypt has become centrally important to tourism, linking as it does to all the major sites of Ancient Egypt.

The source of the Nile is from the The source of the Nile was a mystery for centuries. An explorer named Ptolemy was sure that the source was the so called "Mountains of the Moon" and the search for the source was begun and had attracted lots of attention in the 18th and 19th century. Many explorers tried to find the source but they only found different rivers and lakes. It was then found that the primary source was from the snow capped mountains which slowly melted and water was pouring down into a barren ground and on that day Lake Victoria was born.

Lake Victoria got filled up after a 1000 years and started to flow north through Uganda and Egypt and finally out into the Mediterranean Sea. Lake Victoria was also met by the White and Blue Nile and soon it became a delta flowing to vast areas. The Nile has also got another source which are the heavy rainfalls which flood the Nile each summer while the river reaches its lowest volumes between January and May. The Nile flows through a lot of terrains as it is so long. It flows through a couple of rainforest and one desert, which is the Sahara desert (The largest desert in the world). Lake Victoria is the secondary source of the Nile.

History of Human activities The first great African civilization developed in the northern Nile Valley in about 5000 BC. Dependent on agriculture, this state, called Egypt, relied on the flooding of the Nile for irrigation and new soils. It dominated vast areas of northeastern Africa for millennia. Ruled by Egypt for about 1800 years, the Kush region of northern Sudan subjugated Egypt in the 8th century BC. Pyramids, temples, and other monuments of these civilizations blanket the river valley in Egypt and northern Sudan. After this, other countries were born like Sudan and Uganda and even they started to use the Nile to fulfill their needs.

Various cultures were born after that. Arabs and Africans started to make homes near the Nile and after that cultural facilities were made, including the Pocket Theatre, the National Puppet Theatre, the Opera House, and the National Symphony. Since the early 1960's, folk dancing had been the most interesting thing between these two cultures. Egypt is the principal film-making country in the Arab world, with a state-operated cinema corporation and numerous private film companies.

Among the many outstanding museums in Cairo is the Egyptian Museum, also known as the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, which houses a vast collection of relics and artefacts from almost every period of ancient Egypt. There is a rich and varied heritage, as well as Egyptian art and architecture but before all this art and architecture was culture in Africa. In Egypt pharaohs ruled the land and pyramids and sacred statues were built in remembrance of them and a kind of special tribute to the Nile. Resources of river shared?

Ten countries share the Nile and its resources - Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The Nile River Basin serves as home to an estimated 160 million people within the boundaries of the Basin, while almost twice that number, roughly 300 million live within the ten countries that share the Nile waters. Its ecological system is unique, hosting a number of varied landscapes, with high mountains, tropical forests, woodlands, lakes, savannas and deserts. People who live on the mountains share the snow with the Nile as it provides water and people living near the rainforest get their water from the heavy seasonal rainfall as it is collected in a catchment. The seasonal rainfall also help the Nile flood which enables local people to gather water for their necessity. Environmental Issues 97% of Egypt is mainly desert and is therefore dependent on the Nile River for its existence.

Only 5% of the land area in Egypt is actually occupied and less than 4% of the land is suitable for agriculture. Since such a small percentage of land is habitable, population densities in some areas along the Nile River are greater than 1,000 people per square kilometer e. The blood of Egypt is the Nile river and they can't live without it. The Nile is the main source of freshwater for household use and irrigation and also a source of power from the hydroelectric facility at Aswan and it also assists in transporting people and certain goods (boats) Economic development has placed great stress on Egypt's environment. Population density, combined with long-postponed infrastructure investments, has severely overwhelmed water and wastewater services of urban areas creating numerous environmental hazards. Oil pollution and careless anchoring of boats have damaged coral reefs off the coast, as has pollution from urban and industrial sources and improper disposal of solid wastes.

Rapid population growth is straining natural resources as agricultural land is being lost to urbanization, desertification, and salination. The Nile and its tributaries are being contaminated with pollutants, chemicals, and heavy metals. Other cities are having much more problems than Egypt as they have less establishments than Egypt and less support. Cairo in Egypt is in the best position that the other countries because the other countries have less irrigation systems and have a lesser population which means less workers and since the Nile is being polluted, the Nile will be destroyed and Egypt will have no other source to rely on.