The battle for control of River Nile, the world’s longest river, has reached a critical stage with upstream states keen to safeguard use of its resources while two downstream states — Sudan and Egypt — want to continue riding on a lopsided agreement signed with the British colonialists some 80 years ago.
Under a framework agreed in Kinsasha in May, all countries — the others are Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo — were supposed to use the resources provided there was no significant harm to projects and access in other countries within the river basin.
Egypt and Sudan, however, have scoffed at this arrangement and want virtually all use by other states that would threaten their dependence on the river prohibited.
This would, in a nutshell, rule out all projects that would involve diversion of the river’s flow such as for irrigation, fish farming, and electricity generation in other countries.
The position taken by the two countries is to some extent understandable, given the desert conditions that prevail in most of their territory.
That it is also selfish is apparent in that the two countries want 90 per cent of the river’s waters exclusive to themselves, riding on an agreement whose legitimacy is at the very heart of the dispute.
Objectively, the agreement cannot continue in its present form and something eventually has to give.
This is exactly the concern that Kenyan legislators are raising. To their credit, they are urging for more negotiations and understanding of each party’s interests.
That contrasts sharply with the position of Egypt, which assumed chairmanship of the Nile Basin Council of Ministers last week.
Egypt’s water minister, Mohamed Nasreddin Allam, said the 1929 agreement was not negotiable and that it would not compromise the historic rights granted by that agreement.
This stubborn claim on historic rights, and the wider issue of water security which is key to Egypt’s agriculture production, have made the country come across as a recalcitrant neighbour who will readily trample down on the rights of citizens of East Africa to exploit natural resources that nature has bequeathed them.
A look through the historic rights proves that they are shameless and motivated by greed rather than any real threat on water security.
The 1929 pact signed between Egypt and Great Britain, and the 1959 Egypt, Sudan agreement which acts as a supplement to the previous accord and gives Egypt the right to 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water a year.
That out of about 90 billion cubic meters a year in total to which eight countries are entitled.
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200908040716.html
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Tags: Allam, Chairmanship, Council Of Ministers, Critical Stage, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Desert Conditions, Electricity Generation, Fish Farming, International Conflicts, Kinsasha, Legitimacy, Longest River, Nasreddin, Nile Basin, Nutshell, Republic Of Congo, River Basin, River Nile, Rwanda Burundi, Water Security
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