Egypt and Sudan continue to argue over the Nile
21 April, 2010 | By Matt Bradley
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
they hope to finalise negotiations on the Co-operative Framework
Agreement next month, with or without agreement from down-river
nations Egypt and Sudan.
The plans follow failed negotiations last week in Sharm El-Sheikh,
Egypt, between the nine countries of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), a
World Bank-funded programme that seeks to establish a diplomatic
protocol for evaluating the fair use of the river for agricultural and
energy projects.
The impasse between up-river and down-river countries has led to
more than a decade of delays in forming the framework agreement,
which supporters say could become an example of international co-
operation for the fair use of water resources in the impoverished and
conflict-prone region of north-eastern Africa.
A spokesman for the Ethiopian government accused Egypt on Tuesday
of “delaying” negotiations, according to the Bloomberg news agency.
But Egypt, which is where the river flows into the Mediterranean, and
Sudan say such an agreement could threaten their “historical rights” to
secure sources of water. Their position downstream renders them
particularly vulnerable to changes in water availability caused by up-
river development projects, they said.
Egyptian water officials said if up-river nations exclude them from the
agreement, it could spell the end of negotiations on equitable water-
sharing for the entire river basin.
“Egypt’s share of the Nile’s water is a historic right that Egypt has
defended throughout its history,” said Mohammed Allam, Egypt’s
minister of water resources and irrigation, to a parliamentary session on
Monday, according to Agence France-Presse. “If the Nile basin
countries unilaterally signed the agreement it would be considered the
announcement of the Nile Basin Initiative’s death.”
Egypt and Sudan’s historical claims to the Nile’s water stem from two
past treaties that did not include signatures from the other Nile basin
states. The latest treaty, which was signed between Egypt and Sudan in
1959, gave the Egyptian government rights over 55.5 billion cubic
metres of water annually out of the 84 billion cubic metres that reach
Egypt’s High Aswan Dam each year.
Although all of the countries have agreed on most of the terms of the
framework, Egypt and Sudan have insisted that the agreement should
include guarantees of the “historical rights” to which upper riparian
states were never a party.
“We are not party to that agreement and we don’t recognise it,” said
Teferra Beyene, the head of trans-boundary river affairs for Ethiopia’s
ministry of water resources, of the 1959 treaty between Egypt and
Sudan. “We don’t know of such a thing called historical rights. After all
this is going to be a new covenant, a new agreement among the riparian
countries.”
Egyptian diplomats urged negotiators to proceed directly towards the
formation of a Nile River Basin Commission instead of first negotiating
the terms of the framework agreement. The commission would act as a
deliberative body and would make its decisions by a consensus of all
the riparian states.
Egyptian officials say that unlike upper riparian states such as Ethiopia,
whose rainy highlands provide an estimated 85 per cent of the Nile’s
waters, projects on the Egyptian section of the river have no impact on
countries further downstream.
“Our Egyptian water comes from the geography of the river and they
can’t control that,” said Abd el Ati el Shafei, the chairman of the Nile
Guards and Environment Protection Association.
Mr el Shafei said the Nile water that reaches Egypt only constitutes
around five per cent of the Nile River’s total reserves of 1,600 billion
cubic metres. And with its large and growing population that dwarfs
those of other Nile Basin states, with the exception of Ethiopia, Egypt’s
need for water security is particularly acute. “They don’t need the
water that runs into Egypt and we didn’t take it from them by force,”
Mr el Shafei said.
But as the countries of the Nile basin bicker over who is responsible for
the stalled negotiations, the impasse continues to delay the creation of a
permanent body that might arbitrate such disputes. Hani Raslan, the
director of the Sudan and Nile basin studies programme at the semi-
official Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, said
he does not expect any serious decisions on a co-operative agreement
within the next 20 years.
“These countries are small and fragile, they have many crises, and they
act with Egypt like maybe they think they are superpowers,” Mr Raslan
said. “That is not real. Egypt must have the right to do anything to
protect its people.”
Courtesy
21 April, 2010 | By Matt Bradley
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- CAIRO // Despite a lack of
agreement from Egypt and
Sudan, seven of the nine
countries that share the Nile
River basin will proceed with
plans to create a permanent
negotiating body for
determining the equitable use
of the world’s longest river,
African water ministers have
said.
they hope to finalise negotiations on the Co-operative Framework
Agreement next month, with or without agreement from down-river
nations Egypt and Sudan.
The plans follow failed negotiations last week in Sharm El-Sheikh,
Egypt, between the nine countries of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), a
World Bank-funded programme that seeks to establish a diplomatic
protocol for evaluating the fair use of the river for agricultural and
energy projects.
The impasse between up-river and down-river countries has led to
more than a decade of delays in forming the framework agreement,
which supporters say could become an example of international co-
operation for the fair use of water resources in the impoverished and
conflict-prone region of north-eastern Africa.
A spokesman for the Ethiopian government accused Egypt on Tuesday
of “delaying” negotiations, according to the Bloomberg news agency.
But Egypt, which is where the river flows into the Mediterranean, and
Sudan say such an agreement could threaten their “historical rights” to
secure sources of water. Their position downstream renders them
particularly vulnerable to changes in water availability caused by up-
river development projects, they said.
Egyptian water officials said if up-river nations exclude them from the
agreement, it could spell the end of negotiations on equitable water-
sharing for the entire river basin.
“Egypt’s share of the Nile’s water is a historic right that Egypt has
defended throughout its history,” said Mohammed Allam, Egypt’s
minister of water resources and irrigation, to a parliamentary session on
Monday, according to Agence France-Presse. “If the Nile basin
countries unilaterally signed the agreement it would be considered the
announcement of the Nile Basin Initiative’s death.”
Egypt and Sudan’s historical claims to the Nile’s water stem from two
past treaties that did not include signatures from the other Nile basin
states. The latest treaty, which was signed between Egypt and Sudan in
1959, gave the Egyptian government rights over 55.5 billion cubic
metres of water annually out of the 84 billion cubic metres that reach
Egypt’s High Aswan Dam each year.
Although all of the countries have agreed on most of the terms of the
framework, Egypt and Sudan have insisted that the agreement should
include guarantees of the “historical rights” to which upper riparian
states were never a party.
“We are not party to that agreement and we don’t recognise it,” said
Teferra Beyene, the head of trans-boundary river affairs for Ethiopia’s
ministry of water resources, of the 1959 treaty between Egypt and
Sudan. “We don’t know of such a thing called historical rights. After all
this is going to be a new covenant, a new agreement among the riparian
countries.”
Egyptian diplomats urged negotiators to proceed directly towards the
formation of a Nile River Basin Commission instead of first negotiating
the terms of the framework agreement. The commission would act as a
deliberative body and would make its decisions by a consensus of all
the riparian states.
Egyptian officials say that unlike upper riparian states such as Ethiopia,
whose rainy highlands provide an estimated 85 per cent of the Nile’s
waters, projects on the Egyptian section of the river have no impact on
countries further downstream.
“Our Egyptian water comes from the geography of the river and they
can’t control that,” said Abd el Ati el Shafei, the chairman of the Nile
Guards and Environment Protection Association.
Mr el Shafei said the Nile water that reaches Egypt only constitutes
around five per cent of the Nile River’s total reserves of 1,600 billion
cubic metres. And with its large and growing population that dwarfs
those of other Nile Basin states, with the exception of Ethiopia, Egypt’s
need for water security is particularly acute. “They don’t need the
water that runs into Egypt and we didn’t take it from them by force,”
Mr el Shafei said.
But as the countries of the Nile basin bicker over who is responsible for
the stalled negotiations, the impasse continues to delay the creation of a
permanent body that might arbitrate such disputes. Hani Raslan, the
director of the Sudan and Nile basin studies programme at the semi-
official Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, said
he does not expect any serious decisions on a co-operative agreement
within the next 20 years.
“These countries are small and fragile, they have many crises, and they
act with Egypt like maybe they think they are superpowers,” Mr Raslan
said. “That is not real. Egypt must have the right to do anything to
protect its people.”
Courtesy
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