But today, more than 2,000 years later, Egyptians fret about the existential threat of a faraway dam to their water supply. Ethiopia began building the Renaissance Dam in 2011, as Egypt was engulfed in political turmoil. Government officials fear the dam will reduce their country's share of Nile water allocated to it under a 1929 international accord. No one is certain how much Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam will affect Egypt's agriculture, or life in general. Some experts worry the new Ethiopian dam could also increase the concentration of agricultural and industrial pollutants if the flow of river water decreases.

Source: Ethiopian News February 27, 2018 21:11 UTC