The River Nile waters serve eleven countries in Africa, each of whom have a legitimate claim to its waters. Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Eritrea generate the waters for various uses.
Of the countries that lay claim to the waters of the great river The Sudan and Egypt are the countries that benefit most from the Nile.
For Egypt, the Nile is its life blood without which the country would be a barren and desolate desert. It thus comes as no surprise that it has “threatened to go to war” if its entitlement to 85% of the Nile waters, as per 1929 and 1952 colonial agreements with Britain, was tampered with or varied in any way.
According to said agreements Egypt was granted the authority over developments along the Nile by the other eight states in order to ensure steady supply of water into Egypt. However, the situation seems to have become unsustainable for these upstream states who seemingly agreed to get their hands tied over natural resource over which they had equal rights.
Like Egypt, they had needs for hydro-electric dams, water for irrigation, domestic and industrial usage. The bone of contention now is striking a balance between competing interests.
This can only be addressed through a new agreement between all states. The Co-operative Framework Agreement (CFA), which sought to replace the colonial agreements, was a step in the right direction towards a new agreement among the states.
However, Egypt remains the only state to sign the agreement. If this persists, the result will be rather unilateral actions like Ethiopia’s decision to build a 6,000 megawatts dam, without first consulting Egypt.
Population growth has adversely impacted on the climate at a time when demand for water for agriculture, power generation, domestic use and industries has increased exponentially in all countries, Egypt included.
The problem is that population is set to almost double over 50 years in most of Nile Basin countries, further exasperating the water situation.
All the countries must address environmental degradation, whose impact on rainfall is already beginning to show. It is in Egypt’s interest and countries of the Nile Basin to invest in reversal of this dangerous phenomenon, which threatens to spread the Sahara Desert down south.
Only through collective action can we save the Nile from ‘drying up’ and ensure that there is enough water for both down-stream and up-stream countries. Bickering over ‘ancient’ rights will do us no good. For more information follow the link below:
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/Egypt-should-join-the-consensus-on-shared-use-of-Nile-Waters/689364-3889416-6cwxbkz/index.html
