Hydro-politics and Hydro-economics: Comparing Upstream and Downstream Challenges for Vietnam and Ethiopia

This paper examines the conventional concept of hydro-political hegemons in both upstream and downstream locations, on different continents, in the context of political transformations, economic priorities, and environmental challenges. The water resource futures of both Vietnam and Ethiopia depend on access to and control of two of the largest rivers in the world, the Mekong and the Nile. Both countries have similar motives for pushing high dam construction: food security through perennial irrigated agriculture, economic growth through electricity generation and export, and government expansion. However, the Blue Nile originates upstream in Ethiopia and the Mekong ends downstream in Vietnam. While both Vietnam and Ethiopia have hydro-political challenges with upstream or downstream traditional hegemons (China and Egypt) that have used their power to control the rivers’ destinies in each region, Vietnam’s Lower Mekong faces a multitude of high dam-related adverse environmental effects, in contrast to Ethiopia’s upper Blue Nile hydro-development benefits. In today’s developing economies, impending hydro-economic benefits dwarf the risks of political confrontations, often disregarding potential environmental adversities. Thus, the authors conclude that Vietnam’s and Ethiopia’s hydro-economic returns will overshadow the hydro-political discourse regardless of their respective upstream or downstream locations.