Ministers in charge of water affairs from all 10 Nile Basin countries agreed to disagree over how to allocate the most precious of commodities. Reem Leila reports from Alexandria The sharing and management of the River Nile waters has put officials of the Nile Basin in a bit of hot water. Talks between the water ministries of Egypt and those of the Nile Basin countries ended on Tuesday night after the two sides agreed to form a technical committee to attempt to solve pending issues between the upstream and downstream countries. Nile Basin water ministers started crucial talks during the two-day 17th Nile-COM meeting in the coastal city of Alexandria on 27 July. Entitled "Nurturing our Partnership for Prosperity" the conference's aim was to draft a new water sharing agreement which is hampered by Egypt's refusal to reduce its share of the world's longest river, the 6,670km long Nile. The meeting, which brought together ministers in charge of water affairs from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda also reviewed progress, plans, strategic documents and reports of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). Participants also included World Bank (WB) representatives, Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, in addition to Egypt's ministers of international cooperation, electricity, agriculture and land reclamation. Nazif urged Nile Basin countries to "return to the cooperation and harmony" among the group's members, describing the ongoing dispute as a "misunderstanding". Jose Endundo Bononge, the minister of environment, nature conservation and tourism of Congo, who has completed his one-year term as chair of NBI has passed the torch to Egypt's Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) Mohamed Nasreddin Allam. The chairmanship of the Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-COM) is a rotational position among the Nile Basin countries. "Regional cooperation will continue to be strengthened and maintained on the basis of the interests of our states," Bononge said. During the meeting, member states have vowed to ratify the Cooperative Framework Convention, a pact that seeks to establish a permanent commission of the Nile Basin. Part of the achievements of NBI include some $800 million in investments in the portfolio on projects such as the Egypt West Delta Irrigation Project, the Ethiopia Irrigation Project, power interconnection between Ethiopia and Sudan, as well as regional transmission projects in the Equatorial Lakes Region. An additional $600 million worth of projects are being prepared including the Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric and Multipurpose Project, Eastern Nile Flood Preparedness and Early Warning-Phase 2. Other projects include Bugesera Integrated Water and Irrigation, and the Lakes Edward and Albert Fisheries. Consequently, Nile cooperation is yielding close to $1 billion in \tangible benefits to the region. The conference was conducted amid controversy and heated responses due to reports, later rejected by Allam, that Egypt and Sudan threatened to withdraw from the NBI if their interests were ignored while signing the framework agreement. Egypt alongside with Sudan are opposed to some of the contents of the document that would form the basis of the pact. Allam said Egypt had set three conditions before signing the Nile Basin framework agreement: water security, being informed prior to implementation of projects involved with the Nile, and having Egypt and Sudan's consent before making any decisions. Allam said during the press conference that it was necessary to include in the agreement a clear article that guarantees Egypt's water quota. "We are confident because Egypt has its own water and the High Dam. We won't need to think about having outside water till five or six years from now. We have an adequate amount of water to fulfil our needs during that time and accordingly Egypt will not withdraw from the initiative." Many of the source countries believe that such new development has dimmed hopes of upstream countries getting a new pact to replace the current one that gives Egypt and Sudan superior rights over the waters especially after Egypt took the leadership of the Nile-COM. "If the points of contention are not solved within the next six months, Nile Basin countries will refer the whole issue to higher authorities in order to reach a compromise regarding this sensitive matter," Sudanese Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Kamal Ali Mohamed said. During the two-day meeting, participants could not conclude the Nile Cooperative Framework Agreement which establishes a permanent body to oversee water allocation along the Nile. During talks which took place in Kinshasa, Congo, almost two months ago, officials from the 10 countries of the Nile Basin failed to agree on a new system of water sharing desired by a majority of the members. The 1929 agreement which was conducted between Egypt and Britain, acting on behalf of its then east African colonies, set up the original sharing framework and gave Cairo the right to veto upstream projects. In the 1959 agreement with Sudan, Egypt was awarded an annual 55.5 billion cubic metres of Nile water, while Sudan was allotted 17.5 billion cubic metres. The remaining eight riparian states resent Egypt's quota and want to draft a new agreement. The other NBI nations, who feel they deserve more than what is currently being given, were not part of this agreement, as Egypt and Sudan held sway over water politics at the time thanks in part to Britain's dealings in the basin during colonial times. Tanzania has been the most active in resisting Egyptian dominance. In 2004, the country announced plans to develop a 105-mile pipeline that would drain water from Lake Victoria, the Nile's source. This has affected the flow of water into Egypt and Sudan. Although the project did not seriously divert the river's flow, the effort appears to have irritated Egypt and further attempts were not welcomed. During the event, Allam repeatedly said his country will not accept any change to its quota. The original Nile treaty was drawn up at a time when Egypt was a British protectorate, regarded as strategically crucial by London because of the Suez Canal which controlled access to India. Now, that agreement is in effect enforced by international donors, such as the World Bank, who are reluctant to advance funds for major river projects that will upset Egypt. Speaking on behalf of the Development Partners, David Grey of the World Bank pleaded for the inclusiveness of all the Nile Basin countries in the water resource management of the River Nile. "As we look into the future, with growing populations and economies and consequent water demand, and with climate change already a fact, not a conjecture, the world needs to ensure that cooperation and not conflict is the path that will be followed by co- riparian nations," Grey said. Some wonder why another NBI nation would not simply construct a large dam or follow Tanzania's lead with a water pipeline. The results would be disastrous, says Allam. If an upriver nation were to do so, "there would not be enough water for any other nation," he added. Allam affirmed the strong commitment of Egypt to continue cooperation with Nile Basin countries and insisted on the need to sustain gains yielded by the regional cooperation since the Nile Basin Initiative came into existence. The minister of water affairs of Eritrea told the gathering that his country was looking forward to becoming an active member of the Nile Basin countries. Eritrea has been an observer member since the creation of the NBI in 1999. The River Nile, the longest trans-border artery linking 10 African countries, has become a major challenge for the nations that share its waters. The distribution of the Nile's waters has been a source of dispute and strained relations for many decades. According to the NBI, at the Nile-COM meeting, members emphasised the importance of a "United Basin" approach to managing the River Nile to ensure the most effective development of the river for the people of the member states. Henriette Ndombe, executive director of the NBI, stated that the institutional strengthening process remains the key to nurturing partnership among the riparian countries. She also highlighted various achievements of the Nile Basin Initiative's Shared Vision Projects which are gradually closing their operations. Due to the absence of any major dams or hydroelectric projects upstream of it, experts say Egypt can afford to be dismissive of the other states' concerns since there is little they can do to impede the Nile's flow. Talks in Kinshasa ended with Egypt refusing to ratify the new pact without the other signatories explicitly agreeing to its original share of Nile water and a veto for Cairo over any future upstream projects. Allam has since sent mixed messages, indicating simultaneous support for fellow basin states while presenting the possibility of unilateral action. He described relations between Egypt and member nations as "favourable." "We are calm and there is no tension. Egypt is capable and has water; through the High Dam we have enough. "Our relationship is stronger than any political differences with respect to Nile Basin countries." But Allam also said that Egypt's continued membership in the NBI would be a "political decision" and that Egypt was "evaluating a number of alternatives". The Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre issued a report on 18 July that the country will need 86.2 billion cubic metres of water in 2017 and will only have resources of 71.4 billion cubic metres. Egypt's water resources stood at 64 billion cubic metres in 2006, of which the River Nile provided 80 per cent, the report said. By 2017 the Nile is expected to supply only 80.5 per cent of Egypt's resources. Egypt stands below 850 cubic metres per capita per year, below the water poverty level of 1,000 cubic metres. Currently, the MWRI is attempting to curb wasteful agricultural water practices and create desalination programmes. In the same context, Egypt and Sudan have made plans to construct the Gongli Canal which would provide an additional two billion cubic metres of water. The canal would avoid water loss by diverting water from swamps.
