CAIRO: In an unprecedented move, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry has asked the coalition of the youth of the January 25 Revolution to step in on talks over the Nile Basin crisis. Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil el-Arabi met with members of the coalition on Thursday to discuss the efforts of the coalition to come to an agreement with the Nile Basin countries through a visit to Uganda by a delegation from the coalition. The delegation will meet with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to discuss relations between the two countries and will stress the importance of a diplomatic solution to the Nile Basin crisis, reported state news agency MENA. Uganda was one of the first upstream Nile Basin countries to sign the Entebbe Initiative in 2010. The initiative is opposed by Egypt and Sudan. Should the agreement be ratified, it could affect the distribution of shares of the Nile's water. El-Arabi said Egypt is going through a new era following the revolution and will see new foreign policies, especially with regard to the Nile Basin countries. A few days ago the Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf paid his first foreign trip to both halves of Sudan, visting Khartoum and Juba to discuss joint efforts to solve the crisis. Sharaf met South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Monday during his two-day visit to the newly formed country. Sharaf was accompanied by a delegation of Egyptian officials, including Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hussein el-Atfi. Talks were hold around future plans to increase water resources of the Nile Basin, as several other Nile countries recently advanced their request to re-shuffle the percentage of Nile water sharing. Egyptian and Sudanese delegations agreed upon reviving plans for the construction of the Jonglei Canal in South Sudan. The canal would channel swamp water back into the Nile, amounting to an annual increase of Nile water availability of roughly 4 billion cubic meters. The Ethiopian Government announced plans to build a hydroelectric power dam along the Blue Nile River, in defiance of objections from Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia's Minister of Water and Energy, Alemayehu Tegenu, said Wednesday the dam will benefit Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, adding that the dam, which is set to be built in western Ethiopia near the Sudan border, will provide power at competitive rates to other countries and will offer irrigation opportunities. Egypt has repeatedly rejected any deals or projects that would reduce its share of the Nile Water. Egypt receives most of the Nile's water share under a treaty that dates back to 1929, but it might lose its power and some of its share if these countries ratify the new Agreement, and Egypt would lose it is power to veto any projects proposed by other countries such as the construction of dams that could affect Egypt's share of water. BM
