Four African countries sign new Nile treaty
14 May, 2010 | By Ben Simon (AFP)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania signed the new framework
while Kenya issued a support statement, an AFP correspondent
reported.
Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo were not
represented at the meeting in the Ugandan town of Entebbe.
"This agreement benefits all of us and harms none of us," Ethiopia's
Water Resources Minister Asfaw Dingamo said. "I strongly believe
all Nile Basin countries will sign the agreement."
The upstream countries want to be able to implement irrigation and
hydropower projects in consultation with Egypt and Sudan, but
without Egypt being able to exercise the veto power it was given by
a 1929 colonial-era treaty with Britain.
"We regret the intentional and announced absence of our dear
brothers from Egypt and Sudan," said Stanislas Kamanzi, Rwanda's
water and lands minister.
Kenya's ambassador to Uganda, Geoffrey Okanga, said his
country's water minister "signalled to me her readiness to sign this
agreement as soon as possible because the Kenyan position on this
matter has not changed..."
The new agreement, the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework, is to
replace a 1959 accord between Egypt and Sudan that gives them
control of more than 90 percent of the water flow.
The two countries have expressed fears that their water supply
would be severely reduced if the seven other Nile users divert the
river with domestic irrigation and hydropower projects.
The 6,700-kilometre Nile is a confluence of the White Nile, whose
source is Lake Victoria in east Africa, and the Blue Nile that springs
from the Ethiopian highlands.
The two Niles join in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and flow
down through Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea in a huge delta.
The Nile Basin Initiative, which had been spearheading the talks,
will now become the Nile Basin Commission and will receive,
review and approve or reject projects related to Africa's longest
river.
It will be based in Addis Ababa and have representation from all
nine Nile basin countries.
Egypt's State Minister for Legal Affairs Mufid Shehab said the new
agreement was a mistake.
"We do not want to view it as a destructive act, but we view it as a
mistaken action and we should stop it," state media quoted Shehab
as saying late Thursday.
"We never hoped this would happen because it completely goes
beyond the framework of cooperation."
Also Thursday, a senior EU envoy urged seven east African
countries not to sign the new deal and to settle differences with
Egypt and Sudan first.
Marc Franco, who heads the European Union delegation in Egypt,
said a separate deal would "make the political problems that exist
worse."
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit warned at the
weekend that Cairo's water rights were a "red line" and threatened
legal action if a partial deal is reached.
Courtesy
14 May, 2010 | By Ben Simon (AFP)
------------------------------------------------------------------
- ENTEBBE,
Uganda —
Four African
countries on
Friday signed
a new treaty
on the
equitable
sharing of the
Nile waters
despite strong
opposition
Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania signed the new framework
while Kenya issued a support statement, an AFP correspondent
reported.
Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo were not
represented at the meeting in the Ugandan town of Entebbe.
"This agreement benefits all of us and harms none of us," Ethiopia's
Water Resources Minister Asfaw Dingamo said. "I strongly believe
all Nile Basin countries will sign the agreement."
The upstream countries want to be able to implement irrigation and
hydropower projects in consultation with Egypt and Sudan, but
without Egypt being able to exercise the veto power it was given by
a 1929 colonial-era treaty with Britain.
"We regret the intentional and announced absence of our dear
brothers from Egypt and Sudan," said Stanislas Kamanzi, Rwanda's
water and lands minister.
Kenya's ambassador to Uganda, Geoffrey Okanga, said his
country's water minister "signalled to me her readiness to sign this
agreement as soon as possible because the Kenyan position on this
matter has not changed..."
The new agreement, the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework, is to
replace a 1959 accord between Egypt and Sudan that gives them
control of more than 90 percent of the water flow.
The two countries have expressed fears that their water supply
would be severely reduced if the seven other Nile users divert the
river with domestic irrigation and hydropower projects.
The 6,700-kilometre Nile is a confluence of the White Nile, whose
source is Lake Victoria in east Africa, and the Blue Nile that springs
from the Ethiopian highlands.
The two Niles join in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and flow
down through Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea in a huge delta.
The Nile Basin Initiative, which had been spearheading the talks,
will now become the Nile Basin Commission and will receive,
review and approve or reject projects related to Africa's longest
river.
It will be based in Addis Ababa and have representation from all
nine Nile basin countries.
Egypt's State Minister for Legal Affairs Mufid Shehab said the new
agreement was a mistake.
"We do not want to view it as a destructive act, but we view it as a
mistaken action and we should stop it," state media quoted Shehab
as saying late Thursday.
"We never hoped this would happen because it completely goes
beyond the framework of cooperation."
Also Thursday, a senior EU envoy urged seven east African
countries not to sign the new deal and to settle differences with
Egypt and Sudan first.
Marc Franco, who heads the European Union delegation in Egypt,
said a separate deal would "make the political problems that exist
worse."
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit warned at the
weekend that Cairo's water rights were a "red line" and threatened
legal action if a partial deal is reached.
Courtesy
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