The flooding crisis that swept through some Egyptian villages, submerging the homes of dozens of families, is only one facet of a deeper and more dangerous crisis. This crisis is the regime's neglect of Egypt's water rights and its chronic neglect of the people's affairs and the management of the country's resources to preserve its security and the interests of its people. This crisis did not arise suddenly. Rather, it is the result of a successive accumulation of failed policies that have emptied the state of its water defense tools and opened the door for Ethiopia to control the lifeline of Egypt and Sudan through the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

Egypt's intransigent policies have enabled Ethiopia to possess an unprecedented strategic weapon in the region's history: control of the Blue Nile, which supplies Egypt with more than 80% of its water needs. From the moment the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was announced, Egypt adopted a fragile negotiating approach based on acknowledging the status quo and relying on international promises, rather than taking firm positions that preserve its rights and protect Egypt and its people.

After Ethiopia completed the filling stages of the dam one after the other without a binding agreement, it now controls the flow of water to Egypt and Sudan, opening and closing its gates according to its interests, or as some Ethiopian officials point out, "according to what Addis Ababa deems appropriate," or as dictated by the United States. Thus, the dam has become a weapon of political, economic, and security pressure that can be directed against Egypt whenever Ethiopia and its masters so desire.

This weapon can be used in both directions. The first is thirst, when Ethiopia closes the dam or reduces water releases, threatening Egypt with a severe water deficit that would severely impact agriculture, industry, and drinking water. The second is flooding, when massive amounts of water are released in a short period of time, as has recently happened, submerging villages, collapsing homes, and seriously threatening the High Dam. Control of the Nile's waters is no longer in Egypt's hands; it has become hostage to external influences, due to the regime's squandering of its leverage and its voluntary surrender of Egypt's water rights.

What makes the effects of the current floods even more devastating is that Egypt's water infrastructure, which was capable of absorbing any potential flood, has been destroyed. Canals, tributaries, and drains formed an integrated natural and engineered network for draining and distributing excess water, protecting agricultural lands and villages from inundation. However, over the past decades, these networks have been severely neglected and, in many cases, deliberately filled in.

Official reports also indicate that tens of thousands of cases of encroachment and sewage backfilling have been recorded over the past two decades. More than 18,000 cases of encroachment on the Nile were recorded in 2025 alone, in addition to more than 20,000 illegal buildings constructed within the Nile's boundaries and on "river land." These encroachments did not occur in secret; rather, they occurred under the watchful eye of state agencies, which hesitated to remove them or tacitly permitted them through corruption, favoritism, or administrative incompetence.

Instead of widening the river's channels and reopening old tributaries to absorb floods and use them for reclaiming new land, the state chose the opposite approach: It filled in canals and drains and allowed some to use the Nile's course for agriculture and construction, reducing the water system's capacity to absorb any sudden flooding.

Lands previously designated for water drainage have been transformed into informal settlements or unlicensed agricultural land, placing them at risk whenever the Nile level rises. With no effective early warning plans, many residents find themselves facing rapidly rising waters and collapsing homes, without any real protection from the state.

This neglect is not isolated from the broader neglect of Egyptian agriculture. Instead of developing irrigation systems, maintaining drainage networks, and expanding agricultural land to preserve food security, the state has been preoccupied with superficial projects that have nothing to do with revitalizing the land. In fact, it has allowed fertile lands to be razed for investment or residential projects. Egypt has lost millions of acres of agricultural land in recent decades, diminishing its ability to cope with any water shortage.

Water is one of the greatest necessities of life, and Islam requires the state to preserve and manage it well. It is the state's duty to utilize all its energies and capabilities to conserve water resources and protect people from hazards, whether floods or drought. Failure to do so is not merely an administrative error; it is a betrayal of the trust Allah has entrusted to the ruler, and the punishment for such a failure in this world and the next is severe.

Islam does not sanction dependency or submission to foreign pressure. Rather, it requires taking decisive political and military positions to protect the Ummah's resources and prevent any country from controlling the lifeline of Muslims. Letting the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam expand until it becomes a "lifeline" in Ethiopia's hands is a grave political negligence that contradicts the ruler's duty to protect the nation's interests.

The result is that Egypt has become vulnerable to external water threats, and today it faces a stark equation:

• A dilapidated water infrastructure due to decades of neglect and corruption.

• The course of the Nile has been narrowed and its tributaries have been filled in.

• Villages and neighborhoods have been built within the river's boundaries without any deterrent.

• A state that has lost its leverage over water issues and has handed them over to Ethiopia.

The continuation of this situation will only mean more floods during the seasons of release, more thirst during the seasons of detention, and more dependence on an external will that controls the river that Allah has blessed the people of Egypt with.

The real solution does not come through formal negotiations, or waiting for international grants and promises from the World Bank. Rather, it comes through the state fully assuming its legitimate responsibilities by rebuilding its water system on sound foundations, freeing its political decision-making from dependency, using all means of power at its disposal to protect the nation's water rights, eliminating administrative corruption, reopening canals and drains, prohibiting construction on the Nile's land, and regulating water management in a manner consistent with the interests of all people, not just a limited group. This cannot be achieved by a regime that practices corrupt capitalism. Rather, it requires a state that truly cares for the people according to Islam.

Islam requires the state to be a guardian of the nation's interests, not a burden on foreign influence. It requires the state to reconstruct its projects on the basis of "sovereignty belongs to the Sharia and authority belongs to the Ummah," not to the dictates of donor countries. This can only be achieved through a system that truly governs according to Islam, reconnects politics with principle, and makes the care of people's affairs its primary goal, not a mere slogan for media consumption.

O Allah, restore to us the Islamic State, its authority and its law, so that we may once again enjoy its shade; Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided Caliphate) on the method of the Prophethood.

[وَلَوْ أَنَّ أَهْلَ الْقُرَى آمَنُواْ وَاتَّقَواْ لَفَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِم بَرَكَاتٍ مِّنَ السَّمَاء وَالأَرْضِ وَلَـكِن كَذَّبُواْ فَأَخَذْنَاهُم بِمَا كَانُواْ يَكْسِبُونَ]

“Had the people of those societies been faithful and mindful ˹of Allah˺, We would have overwhelmed them with blessings from heaven and earth. But they disbelieved, so We seized them for what they used to commit.” [Al-A’raf 7:96]