Ethiopia Freezes Nile Water Treaty in Sign of
Thaw With Egypt

03 May, 2011 | Peter Heinlein (VOA)
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Ethiopia has agreed to postpone ratification of a treaty on sharing Nile
River water until a new Egyptian government takes office to join the
negotiations. The delay eases a long-running dispute between
upstream countries at the source of the Nile and downstream
countries that claim historic rights to the water.

    Ethiopia’s Prime Minister
    Meles Zenawi has told a
    visiting Egyptian delegation he
    will freeze consideration of a
    treaty that would reverse
    colonial-era agreements giving
    Egypt and Sudan rights to 90
    percent of the Nile’s water.
Six upper riparian states have signed the deal, clearing the way for
ratification. But downstream countries Egypt and Sudan have refused.

Ethiopia’s ambassador to Egypt Mohamoud Dirir Gheddi said the
delay is a goodwill gesture to allow Egypt time to elect a new
government following the popular uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak.

"Ethiopia, having seen the current situation in Egypt, where they need
to establish their own government and go through a democratic
process of election of their president, sees that it is sane and wise to
wait for Egypt and give her time. So it is by way of freezing the
ratification at parliament that process will be delayed until such time as
Egypt comes up with its own popularly elected government," Dirir
said.

Members of the Egyptian delegation say they received a similar
assurance from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni during a visit to
Kampala last month. Delegation leader Mustafa el Gindy said the 47-
member group asked for a delay of up to a year.

"Six months or a year because we need to stabilize, we need to
finalize our revolution. We got Mubarak, we got his ministry, but 30
years of Mubarak in Egypt, there is a lot of ‘Mubarak underground’
who want to kill this revolution. Then we need the time, the year is a
maximum to get back strong enough, to sit all together," el Gindy said.

The water-sharing dispute gained new urgency last month when
Ethiopia announced it is building a huge 5,000-megawatt power
project on the Nile, close to the Sudanese border. El Gindy said the
announcement frightened many Egyptians, who were told for decades
by the Mubarak government that Ethiopia was trying to steal their
water.

"I told the prime minister, 30 years of Mubarak made the Egyptians
(think) they don’t trust you. They think you are the man who wants to
kill them and cut the water on them," el Gindy said.

Ethiopia’s ambassador Dirir Gheddi says the Mubarak government
contributed to the unfriendly atmosphere by blocking international
funding for an Ethiopian power project on the Nile.

"There was a baggage of suspicion created by the former regime vis-a-
vis Ethiopia that Ethiopia is a conspiring country against Egypt, and of
course Egypt has conspired against Ethiopia in the past, persuading
international donors like the IMF and World Bank not to fund
projects in Ethiopia related to the Nile River," Dirir said.

Egyptian delegation leader el Gindy says that when all Nile riparian
countries reach a deal on water sharing, institutions like the World
Bank and IMF will be knocking on their door to fund power
generation projects.

News agencies say Egypt’s Prime Minister Essam Sharaf will visit
Ethiopia later this month to follow up on the work of the public
diplomacy delegation

                                     Courtesy
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