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Nile river row:
Egypt extends olive branch
UGANDA: Egypt sounded a conciliatory note Monday in a dispute over
how Nile waters should be shared by the countries it passes through at
an African summit in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
After more than a decade of talks driven by anger over the perceived
injustice of a previous Nile water treaty signed in 1929, Ethiopia,
Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya signed a new deal in May without
their northern neighbours.
The five signatories have given the other Nile Basin countries —
Egypt, Sudan, Burundi and Democratic Republic of the Congo — one year to
join the pact but the countries have been torn by behind-the-scenes
debate since the signing.
“There are no strategic differences between us,” Egyptian Prime
Minister Ahmed Nazif told reporters at the summit. “The issue is only on
some technical points that need resolution. The purpose of the Nile
Basin agreements is development.”
The words mark a softening of the Egyptian position since a meeting
of water ministers from the nine countries last month in the Ethiopian
capital, Addis Ababa.
“Ask the Egyptians to leave their culture and go and live in the
desert because you need to take this water and to add it to other
countries? No,” Egyptian Water Minister Mohamed Nasreddin Allam told
Reuters at that meeting.
The Nile, stretching more than 6,600 km (4,100 miles) from Lake
Victoria to the Mediterranean, is a vital water and energy source for
the countries through which it flows.
Egyptian state news agency MENA reported that Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni and Nazif agreed at the AU summit that a meeting of the
nine states, to take place in Nairobi by November, should be attended by
heads of state.
Burundi and Democratic Republic of the Congo have not signed the deal
yet and have so far been tight-lipped about whether they plan to or not.
Under the original pact Egypt, which faces possible water shortages
by 2017, is entitled to 55.5 billion cubic metres a year, the lion’s
share of the Nile’s total flow of around 84 billion cubic metres.
Some 85 percent of the Nile’s waters originate in Ethiopia.
Kampala, Tuesday, Reuters |
