Water is often posited as a source of future conflict. What better subject, then, for a meeting of young people, writes Mahmoud Bakr Sudan should be cultivating more land with the help of Arabs and Africans, said a member of the ruling party of Sudan at a gathering of young Arabs and Africans in Luxor, 2-9 December. Al-Walid Sayed, head of the Cairo office of the Sudanese National Congress, called for one million acres in Sudan's Khartoum governorate to be brought under the plough, suggesting the project be managed by a holding company that would sell shares at $1 each to young Arabs and Africans. Speaking at the Arab-African Youth Gathering, which was attended by 500 young men and women from 31 Arab and African countries, Sayed and other experts commented on unresolved issued facing Nile Basin countries. The event was organised by the Arab Union for Youth and Environment (AUYE) in cooperation with the Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO), and the Holding Company for Water and Waste Water (HCWWW). AUYE chief Magdi Allam said ministries of culture and antiquities across the Nile Basin were exerting concerted efforts to raise awareness of the monuments and heritage of the river's riparian countries. A museum for the civilisation of the Nile Basin is planned, with Aswan as a possible venue. Participants at the event urged the creation of a website through which Arab and African youth organisations could remain in touch. AUYE promised to establish and run the website. During the event Egypt's Social Fund for Development called for the creation of a fund for small projects focussed on saving water. Other participants suggested the creation of timber producing forests in Nile Valley countries, to be irrigated with waste water. The creation of a new scouting zone, to be called Nile Scouts, was also discussed. AUYE Secretary-General Mamdouh Rashwan said that the gathering had focussed on issues related to the Nile Basin and its ecology, and on prospects for economic integration among the riparian countries as well as the challenge of ensuring maximum utilisation of Nile waters. Several participants called for an end to isolation and secession within Arab and African countries. The AUYE, Rashwan added, intends to issue a special bulletin in Arabic, English, French and local languages under the title "One Family, One River". It will be published in cooperation with Egypt's General Information Authority. Abbas Mohamed Sharaqi, a professor at the Institute of African Research and Studies (IARS), made a presentation about impediments to water development in Ethiopia. He pointed out that although Ethiopia provides nearly 85 per cent of Nile water geological conditions make it hard to build reservoirs, which is why the main contributor to Nile water suffers from repeated drought. The problem in Ethiopia is not of the making of downstream countries. It is due to geological conditions that would render any dam vulnerable to natural disasters. Cooperation between Egypt and the Nile Basin countries is inspired by a sense of neighbourliness, said Rashwan, and will continue precisely because it is based on mutual interests rather than political blackmail. Egypt will continue to help African countries with education, irrigation, electricity, agriculture and industry-based projects. Mounir Hamed, strategic analyst at the IARS, insisted Egypt was not only citing its historic claims on the Nile, but was also striving to promote goodwill among Nile Basin countries through cooperation agreements. In 1999 Egypt proposed a Nile Basin Initiative, which aimed to provide sustainable growth and social development through the fair use of common water resources. Unfortunately the initiative failed due to civil wars and disturbances across the Nile Basin, in Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and south Sudan. Later, upstream countries starting airing grievances, turning the question of water distribution into a public opinion issue. Part of the problem, Hamed claimed, was pressure from foreign powers, especially Israel which had pressed upstream countries to turn against Egypt when Cairo refused to divert any Nile water to Israel. Wesam Ahmed Taha of the IARS reviewed the history of legal agreements concerning Nile water, beginning with the Rome Protocol of 1891 between Britain and Italy, in which the latter promised to refrain from creating any projects on the Atbara River. Britain also signed a treaty with Ethiopia in 1902 under which Ethiopia promised to build no dams on the Blue Nile, Lake Tana, and the Subat river that might delay or impede the flow of water to Egypt and Sudan. A 1929 agreement between Egypt and Britain (the latter acting on behalf of its colonies of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) set Egypt's quota at 48 billion cubic metres per year. According to the 1929 agreement, no water projects were to be built without Egypt's consent, and Egypt was to supervise irrigation works in Sudan. In 1953, after helping build the Owen Dam, Egypt signed a treaty with Uganda, which promised to not interfere with Egypt's water quota. In 1959 Egypt and Sudan signed an agreement in which Sudan recognised Egypt's long-standing rights. The two countries agreed to share the water saved behind the High Dam, estimated at 22 billion cubic metres, with 7.5 billion cubic metres going to Egypt and the rest, 14.5 cubic metres, going to Sudan. This brought Egypt's total quota to 55.5 billion cubic metres. In return, Egypt promised to compensate Sudanese citizens relocated from north Sudan to the extent of 15 million pounds sterling. Egypt invited Ethiopia to join the agreement but it refused. In 1991 a framework agreement was signed by President Hosni Mubarak and Ugandan President Museveni in which Uganda recognised Egypt's rights as stated in the 1953 agreement, which implied recognition, too, of the 1929 agreement. Egypt also signed a framework agreement in 1993 with Ethiopia. The latter agreed to refrain from building any irrigation projects on the Nile without Egypt's permission. Saad Nassar, chairman of the High Dam Builders' Society, called for the formation of a working group of legal experts, politicians, historians and artists to support Egypt's quota of Nile water. He added that international agreements concerning the Nile remained binding. During its 6,650km course the Nile flows through 10 African countries: Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt.
