Yr Afon

Popular presenter Aled Samuel, who fronts homes' series O4Wal and Y Tŷ Cymreig, follows the Blue Nile from Egypt to its source in the craggy mountains of Ethiopia.

The programme contains fantastic views of both countries and was filmed in High Definition. But behind the peaceful landscape, Aled discovers that the river, which flows through ten countries in Africa, is creating political white waters.

Aled Samuel says: "The Egyptians have always believed that they own the river and until recently, that was more or less true, but things are about to change. Ethiopia, which lies further up the river, has built a dam which could stop 40% of the water from reaching Egypt and both sides have threatened to go to war over the issue. With water now a more powerful weapon that the bomb, I journey to the source of the river to try to find out more about the problems hidden in the waters of the Nile."

The Nile has been linked to the Egyptian civilisation for a number of millennia. And the reality is that cities, towns and villages in Egypt depend on the river for water – particularly the capital Cairo with its population of 17 million.

Aled meets people in Cairo and the Nile Valley who show their passion and their great dependency on the river at a time when drought and overpopulation is an ever-growing problem.

Since 1929, when Egypt was under British rule, an international agreement has prevented other countries on the banks of the White and Blue Nile from stopping the flow of the water through water management schemes.

Egypt has harnessed the river's power through schemes to create electricity and supply water since the agreement was put in place with plans such as the Azwan Dam and the Tosca Project on Lake Nasser.

But now, Ethiopia, helped by China, is building a dam which will supply 225 megawatts of electricity to the grid and has the potential to propagate land all over the north of the country.

Work on the Tekeze Dam started six years ago and it is likely to be completed within a year, but the scheme is still a source of tension between Ethiopia and Egypt as it has the potential to stop 40% of the water from flowing into Egypt.

On his unforgettable journey to the source of the river and the dam, Aled meets farmers and an engineer working on the dam, and helps rural women to carry water. He also meets a monk from the Egyptian Church who explains that Ethiopia is not trying to put any country under threat. The monk believes the old saying that "the world's energy is harnessed in the waters of the Nile – it belongs to everyone and no-one in particular."

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