Press Release

Egypt between the weapon of thirst and flood!

The price of decades of neglect and waste

The flood crisis that swept through some villages in Egypt, and drowned the homes of dozens of families, is only one aspect of a deeper and more dangerous crisis, which is the regime's negligence of Egypt's water rights, and its chronic neglect in caring for people's affairs, and managing the country's resources in a way that preserves its security and the interests of its people. This crisis is not the result of a moment, but rather the result of successive accumulations of failed policies, which emptied the state of water defense tools, and opened the door for Ethiopia to control the lifeline of Egypt and Sudan through the Renaissance Dam.

The negligent Egyptian policies have enabled Ethiopia to possess an unprecedented strategic weapon in the history of the region, which is controlling the waters of the Blue Nile, which supplies Egypt with more than 80% of its water needs. Since the first moment of the announcement of the Renaissance Dam, Egypt has adopted a fragile negotiating approach, based on recognizing the fait accompli, and relying on international promises, instead of taking firm positions that preserve its rights and protect Egypt and its people.

After Ethiopia completed the stages of filling the dam one after the other without a binding agreement, it became in control of the flow of water towards Egypt and Sudan; it opens and closes its gates according to its interests, or as some Ethiopian officials indicate, "according to what Addis Ababa deems appropriate", or according to what America dictates. Thus, the dam has turned into a political, economic and security pressure weapon that can be directed at Egypt whenever Ethiopia and its masters want.

This weapon can be used in both directions together; the first is thirst, when Ethiopia closes the dam or reduces water releases, which threatens Egypt with a severe water deficit, which affects agriculture, industry and drinking water. The other is the flood, when huge amounts of water are released in a short time, as is happening recently, so villages are flooded, houses collapse, and the High Dam is threatened with a serious danger. Controlling the waters of the Nile is no longer in Egypt's hands, but has become hostage to an external will, due to the regime's abandonment of the cards of power, and its voluntary concession of Egypt's water rights.

What makes the effects of the current floods more devastating is that Egypt destroyed its water infrastructure that was able to absorb any potential flood. The canals, tributaries, and drains formed an integrated natural and engineering network for draining and distributing excess water, protecting agricultural lands and villages from drowning. However, these networks have been subjected to severe neglect over the past decades, and deliberate backfilling in many cases.

Official reports also indicate that tens of thousands of cases of encroachment and backfilling of waterways have been recorded during the past two decades. More than 18,000 cases of attacks on the Nile were recorded in 2025 alone, in addition to more than 20,000 illegal buildings since 2021, which were built within the Nile's sanctuary and on "river bank" lands. These attacks did not happen in secret, but were in front of the eyes of state agencies, which hesitated to remove them or allowed them implicitly through corruption, favoritism, or administrative incapacity.

Instead of the state expanding the river's channels and reopening the old tributaries to accommodate the floods and take advantage of them in reclaiming new lands, it chose the opposite path: it filled in canals and drains, and allowed some to use the Nile course for agriculture and construction, which reduced the ability of the water system to absorb any sudden flood.

The lands that were designated for water drainage have turned into random residential neighborhoods or unlicensed agricultural lands, which made them vulnerable to danger whenever the Nile level rose. With the absence of effective early warning plans, many residents found themselves facing rapidly rising water and collapsing homes, without real protection from the state.

This neglect is not isolated from a broader abandonment of Egyptian agriculture; Instead of developing irrigation systems, maintaining drainage networks, and expanding the agricultural area in a way that preserves food security, the state was preoccupied with formal projects that have nothing to do with reviving the land. On the contrary, it allowed fertile lands to be bulldozed in favor of investment or residential projects, so Egypt lost millions of acres of agricultural land during the recent decades, and its ability to face any water shortage decreased.

Water is one of the greatest necessities of life, which Islam obliges the state to preserve and manage well. The state's duty is to use all its energies and capabilities to preserve water sources and protect people from dangers, whether floods or droughts. Neglecting this is not just an administrative error, but a betrayal of the trust that God has placed on the ruler, and its punishment in this world and the hereafter is great.

Islam does not approve of dependence or submission to foreign pressures, but rather requires taking decisive political and military positions to preserve the nation's capabilities, and not allowing any country to possess the reins of the lifeline of Muslims. Leaving the Renaissance Dam to expand until it became a "life tap" in the hands of Ethiopia is a serious political abandonment that contradicts the ruler's duty to protect the interests of the nation.

The result is that Egypt has become exposed to an external water weapon, and today Egypt stands before a difficult equation:

• A dilapidated water infrastructure due to decades of neglect and corruption.
• The Nile's course has been narrowed and its tributaries have been filled.
• Villages and neighborhoods were built inside the Nile's sanctuary without deterrence.
• A state that lost its cards of power in the water file and handed them over to Ethiopia.

The continuation of this situation means nothing but more floods in the release seasons, more thirst in the reservation seasons, and more dependence on an external will that controls the river that God has bestowed upon the people of Egypt.

The real solution is not through formal negotiations, or waiting for international grants and World Bank promises, but through the state fully assuming its legitimate responsibilities, by rebuilding its water system on sound foundations, freeing its political decision from dependence, and using its means of power to protect the nation's water rights, eliminating administrative corruption, reopening canals and drains, permanently preventing construction on the Nile's sanctuary, and organizing water management in accordance with the interests of all people and not the interest of a limited group, which will not be done by a system that applies corrupt capitalism, but rather needs a state that truly cares for people with Islam.

Islam requires that the state be a guardian of the nation's interests, not a burden on the outside, and that its projects be rebuilt on the basis of "sovereignty for the Sharia and authority for the nation", not on the dictates of donor countries, and this cannot be achieved except by a system that rules with Islam in a real way, restores the connection between politics and principle, and makes caring for people's affairs its main goal, not just a slogan for media consumption.

O God, restore to us the state of Islam, its authority and its law, so that we may be shaded by its shade again; a righteous caliphate according to the method of prophecy.

﴿If the people of the towns had but believed and been righteous, We would have opened to them blessings from heaven and earth; but they denied, so We seized them for what they were earning.﴾

The Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

In the State of Egypt