Who owns the River Nile water?

Recently in Dar es Salaam, countries that share the River Nile marked 10 years of cooperation. However, there’s still no final deal that will govern the use of the Nile waters as Egypt has not agreed to such a pact. Sunday Monitor’s Evelyn Lirri provides a historical context to the colonial agreements that favoured Egypt and what the future holds:-

It was in 1929 when then colonial rulers Britain signed an agreement with Egypt that would require other countries that share waters of the River Nile to seek permission from Cairo before embarking on any large scale projects on the river.

The 1929 agreement which gave Egypt the right to object to any activity on the Nile without its consent was revised in 1959, this time between Egypt and Sudan, giving the two countries absolute rights to use 100 per cent of the river’s waters.

Decades later, the 10 countries of Uganda, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi and Eritrea that share the river’s waters, in 1999 decided to sign an agreement through the Nile Basin Initiative, a transitional arrangement to allow for equitable use of the Nile basin water resources.

The Nile basin countries had argued that the bilateral agreement between Egypt and former colonial rulers Britain was outdated and that other countries within the Nile before sin had not consented to it. In fact Kenya has consistently said it does not recognise the treaty that gave Egypt powers to control any use of the River Nile waters.

But while the 1999 transitional agreement provides a level playing field for sharing the water, it is hoped that a final cooperative framework agreement would pave way for all Nile countries to benefit equally and not have to seek permission from Egypt before carrying out any development project.

The 6,695 km (4,160 mile) Nile is the second longest river in the world, with great potential for social-economic development, but currently, most of the people who live in its basin are not benefitting from its possible applications in irrigation to boost modern farming. They thus remain very poor.

Most of the basin countries have not developed projects in great potential that this river has for hydropower generation. In a presentation to journalists earlier this year on the Nile Basin and its potentials, Dr Callist Tindimugaya, a commissioner for water regulation in Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment, said outside Egypt, only 10 per cent of the Nile basin’s hydropower potential has been tapped.

He added: “Within the Nile basin, only 15 per cent of the population is served by electricity while only 40 per cent of the irrigable land has been irrigated,” Dr Tindimugaya said.

Clearly, an inequitable situation pertains. It is hoped that when there is a legal framework that allows countries to use the water resources equitably, it will improve the lives of the 160 million people who live along the Nile basin. Dr Tindimugaya outlined the history of attempts on cooperation on river Nile.

The negotiations started as early as 1997 and since then, numerous meetings and conferences have been held in various capitals of the riparian countries, including coming up with joint projects especially in the area of water management, hydropower development and irrigation for large scale agriculture.

Basin initiative It was in 1999 that the countries finally agreed to form the Nile Basin Initiative, which would, as a transitional arrangement, later be replaced by a permanent commission.

The secretariat of the transitional body is currently hosted by Uganda. According to Dr Tindimugaya, the basin countries have gone through a series of lengthy negotiations, involving mostly water experts, which were carried out between 1997 and 2007. Between 2006 and 2007, the Nile Council of Ministers, which is a club of ministers responsible for water and irrigation in the riparian countries, had resolved many of the contentious issues on a possible treaty on water sharing. In June 2007, the basin countries agreed on all 39 articles that had been proposed in the new treaty, except part (b) of Article 14 which speaks about water security. Egypt wants that bit changed before it can put pen to paper.

It is said that the main words of disagreement in the article refer to “current uses’’ and “rights’’. Analysts says Egypt is unlikely to give up its preferential rights as a major determinant of what activity takes place along the Nile, although it has strongly denied this claim saying the country is committed to a deal that allows riparian countries to undertake development projects on the Nile.

Dr Mohamed El-Din Allam, the Egyptian minister for water and irrigation, who is also the current chairperson of the Nile Council of Ministers, said river management agreements are not easy to achieve and it can take decades to be resolve. He cited the Columbia and Senegal basin initiatives which took decades before countries could reach an agreement.

“For some it took over three decades, but that doesn’t mean that we need three decades to reach an agreement as most of the items have been finalised. It is the issue of water security that is only left. This is not like going to the shop and buying an item, you are deciding the destiny of countries and it’s critical and sensitive,” Dr Allam said. Tanzanians optimistic Tanzania’s minister for water and irrigation Mark Mwandosya said besides equity and fairness, Egypt and the rest of the countries are also “broadly” in agreement on the issue of water security.

“We have the same perspective on the issue of water security but it is the structure of the words and concepts that differ,” he said. Prof. Mwandosya was optimistic that a deal would soon be reached.

With another round of negotiations expected to take place in February 2010 in Alexandria, Egypt, many are optimistic that this will be the defining moment ahead of a final deal.

“As Kenya we are optimistic that by February 2010, we shall be signing the final agreement,” said Mr John Nyaoro, Kenya’s director for water resources.