What a sovereign default actually is
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Why the river treaty is back in the news
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Show notes
The river treaty, from the beginning
A river treaty signed before most of its current critics were born is back in the headlines. This episode explains what the treaty actually says, which is less than most people assume, and why it has survived two wars.
- How the river was divided in the first place, and who brokered it
- What the treaty allows and what it stays silent on
- The dam projects that triggered the latest dispute
- Why downstream farmers care more than either capital city
- What arbitration would look like, step by step
Further reading in the notes: the treaty text, a hydrology explainer and two reporters' long pieces.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to The Second Paragraph. I am Daniel Achebe-Hughes. This week, the river treaty. You will have seen it in the headlines, usually with a word like crisis attached, and if you are like most people you have nodded along without quite knowing what the treaty is. So we are going to start at the start. We will go back to the year it was signed, meet the engineer who drew the line, and read the actual text, which is shorter than you think. Then we will look at the dams that caused the latest argument and why the people with the most at stake are farmers who have never been quoted in a single story. By the end you will be able to follow the next headline without a sinking feeling. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
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