  ''Thanks be to God,'' Mr. Sharkawi said of the Nile River
water. He raised his hands to the sky, then gestured toward a
state functionary visiting his farm. ''Everything is from God,
and from the ministry.''  But perhaps not for much longer.
Upstream countries, looking to right what they say are historic
wrongs, have joined in an attempt to break Egypt and Sudan's
near-monopoly on the water, threatening a crisis that Egyptian
experts said could, at its most extreme, lead to war.  ''Not
only is Egypt the gift of the Nile, this is a country that is
almost completely dependent on Nile water resources,'' said a
spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Hossam Zaki. ''We
have a growing population and growing needs. There is no way we
can accept this kind of threat.''  Ever since civilization first
sprang forth here, Egyptians have clustered along the Nile's
silt-rich banks. Almost all of the country's 80 million people
live within a few miles of the river, and farmers like Mr.
Sharkawi have hardly changed the