Aid is being offered to upstream Nile Basin countries in an attempt to calm tensions between them and Egypt, Reem Leila reports The River Nile, the lifeline of all African countries on its banks, is now the focus of bitter debate and potential conflict. For the time being, Egypt is working to stem the crisis. Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Abul-Gheit along with Minister of State for International Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga travelled to Ethiopia on 6 July to discuss matters of bilateral cooperation -- especially in fields related to water issues -- with Ethiopian officials. According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the government has prepared an action plan to present to upstream states. According to the plan, the budget of the Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa will be increased to LE100 million. The fund finances development projects, training programmes and digging wells in upstream countries. The press release also mentioned that regarding Egypt's relations with upstream Nile Basin countries in light of the recent Entebbe water sharing agreement, Egypt would not engage in war with any African country. "We will continue to work together on the diplomatic and political level to preserve our quota in the River Nile water," said Hossam Zaki, official spokesman to the foreign minister. According to the ministry press release, the coming weeks will witness intensified political and diplomatic action on Egypt's behalf to solve the dispute over the Nile waters that has dogged Nile Basin countries for decades. Negotiations over the best means of sharing and protecting the Nile in a time of climate change and exploding demographics have been ongoing. But now, and after the signing of the River Nile Basin Co-operative Framework Agreement in May, talks have broken down in bitterness. On one side of the dispute are the seven countries that supply the Nile with water. On the other side are Egypt and Sudan whose deserts and population growth make preserving the Nile's water a matter of life or death. Abul-Gheit announced to the press that throughout recent years Egypt has been taking "covert action" to resolve the ongoing Nile water crisis. "Our actions will soon be exposed," he said. At the same time, Abul-Gheit warned that Egypt's water rights over the Nile is a "red line" and that Egypt is working to preserve these rights. Abul-Gheit, who hoped that his meetings with the Ethiopian prime minister and foreign minister would be positive, stated that early June he met with the president of the World Bank who told him that a World Bank delegation would soon be visiting Egypt to help in resolving the crisis. Abul-Gheit also called for collaborate action to implement development projects in Nile Basin countries without harming the water interests of any of them. On 30 June, Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Nasreddin Allam submitted a report to the Egyptian cabinet summarising Egypt's participation in the recent Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) conference that took place in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. The cabinet, for its part, prepared a comprehensive report and submitted it to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Diaaeddin El-Qousy, international water expert, pointed out that a report concluded last year reveals that Egypt's water needs will surpass its supply by the year 2017. Upstream and downstream countries have been negotiating over the Nile waters to reach a balanced agreement that takes into consideration the interests of all Nile Basin countries. Nothing concrete has so emerged, but El-Qousy said, "it is natural that water talks last for a long time." Egypt is refusing to accept the draft agreement put forward and signed by upstream countries as it made no reference to the existing agreements of 1929 and 1959. El-Qousy pointed out that Egypt's signing of the proposed agreement would annul existing agreements. "Egypt depends on addressing the outstanding problems through political, diplomatic and legal channels," El-Qousy said. A report issued by UNESCO pointed out that Ethiopia insists it has every right to develop its natural resources. It criticised Egypt for building the High Dam without consulting it, as well as for taking the lion's share of the River Nile resources. An Ethiopian policy paper in 1997 stated, "the unfair inequality prevailing in the Nile Basin cannot remain." The one thing that prevented Ethiopia from using Nile water to develop large-scale agriculture is Egypt's threat of taking military action against it, which Egypt has justified as a right of self-defence. According to the UNESCO report, Ethiopia's claim over the waters arising in its territory has international historical precedent. "During the dispute over water that arose between the United States and Mexico at the end of the 19th century, US Attorney-General Judson Harmon stated that his country had absolute sovereignty over that part of the Rio Grande River that flowed within its territory and [that it] had no obligation to share it," states the report. El-Qousy comments that this report was issued some years ago and that the military option is off the table for the time being. "Egypt cannot bomb seven countries all at the same time; actually no country in the world can do this," said El-Qousy. Nonetheless, Egypt, according to El-Qousy, must draw the attention of the international community to the Nile Basin. "Egypt and Sudan should start immediately designing projects to capture the losses of the Sudd area. Projects as Gongeli, Mashar, Bahr Al-Ghazal, Bahr Al-Zaraf, Bahr Al-Gabal could save tens of billions of cubic metres that could be divided between both countries," he said.
