Climate change, pollution and exploitation by man are putting existential pressure on the world's second longest river, on which half a billion people depend for survival
A picture shows a view of the Nile River flowing through Karima city, in Sudan's Northern State, on October 29, 2022. Image: Ashraf Shazly/AFP
The pharaohs worshipped it as a god, the eternal bringer of life. But the clock is ticking on the Nile.
Climate change, pollution and exploitation by man are putting existential pressure on the world's second longest river, on which half a billion people depend for survival.
All along its 6,500-kilometre (4,000-mile) length, alarm bells are ringing.
From Egypt to Uganda, AFP teams have gone out on the ground to gauge the decline of a river that drains a tenth of the African continent.
At its mouth on the Mediterranean, Sayed Mohammed is watching Egypt's fertile Nile Delta disappear. In Sudan, fellow farmer Mohammed Jomaa fears for his harvests, while at its threatened source in Uganda, there is less and less hydroelectric power for ChristineNalwadda Kalema to light her mud and wattle home.