COUNTRIES that share resources of the River Nile have vowed to go ahead and sign an agreement of equitable sharing of the world's longest river with or without Egypt and Sudan on board, a Rwandan minister told a local newspaper. In an interview with The New Times, Rwanda's Minister of Environment Stanislas Kamanzi, who represents his country on the Nile Council of Ministers panel, said that a team of experts were currently revising the agreement and that ministers of the nine countries that form the basin would base on the recommendations to forge a way forward. “The consultants are currently working on a report that will be presented to the ministers during the upcoming council meeting scheduled for April in Egypt,” said Kamanzi. “It is from the recommendations of the consultants that we will base on to seal the deal the following month (May); in this case we have to sign the agreement with or without the two downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan.” The agreement, dubbed the Nile ‘Cooperative Framework Agreement', seeks the establishment of a permanent River Nile Basin Commission through, which member countries will act together to manage and develop resources of the Nile. Egypt's Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Nasreddin Allam said last week Egypt and Sudan were in serious disagreement with the other Nile Basin countries over the framework agreement. "This disagreement is the reason why a co-operation framework agreement has not yet been signed by the Nile Basin countries, despite several meetings between the Nile Basin representatives," Allam told the Parliament's Foreign Committee at a closed session on Monday. He added that the disagreement centred on a clause in the agreement stipulating that any projects in the Upper Nile region that could affect Egypt and Sudan's shares of Nile waters must be announced prior to implementation. Sub-Saharan African states reject the clause.
