By Abraham Telar Kuc.
The Nile River is the longest river on the earth, with eleven nation states sharing it and over 487 million people or about 20% of the African population living in the basin countries and they depend partly or fully on the Nile for their daily water use, foods and other economic benefits.
The river drains 10 % of the African continent or an area greater than 3,176,541 km2, and its divided to ten different sub-basins with two main feeding sources’ the White Nile and the Blue Nile, which making it one of the worlds largest and complicated international trans-boundary river basins (1).
It’s very clear that the long and current regional disputes over the Nile’s waters between the upstream and downstream countries specially Uganda, Ethiopia and other upstream nations who are been the forehead leading the campaign for the lifting of colonial era treaties regarding Nile waters allocutions, governance, management, economic use and other Nile related issues and they been demanding renegotiating Nile river basin for fair shares and equal benefits and which they did in 2010 by reaching and signing of (Cooperative Framework Agreement or Entebbe agreement) to replace all the European colonial agreements, meanwhile the two downstream countries Egypt and Sudan in the other sides refusing to renegotiate or sign the Entebbe treaty and insists on maintaining the colonial era treaties or what they called “the historical rights” which gave the lion’s share of the Nile waters and the absolute veto to only two Nile countries and ignored the rights of other Nile’s nations.
Egypt and Sudan for years been using what they called “the historical rights” guaranteed by the colonial era agreements and their diplomatic influence to block international development funds and loans a policy which its aims only to prevent the upstream nations from establishing or constructing any developmental or economical projects on the Nile River, while Egypt is warring about the potential impacts which could effect its water security level as a result of any construction on the Nile river, the other Nile Basin nations said they are addressing the undergoing social, economic and environmental changes plus the population in the region is growing rapidly which will need more access to Nile basin resources in aim to provide water, food and energy to their people(2).
The looming conflict in the Nile Basin region over water recourses governance, allocutions and economic use has been a major security threat to the regional and international peace and stability, the risks of militarizing the Nile water dispute among the basin countries has been a growing serious security threat to the basin region as a result of lacking of middle point agreement on how to share, mange and benefit from the longest river fairly and equally. (3)(4)(5)(6)
In past years the downstream nations had already unilaterally constructed dams, used Nile waters for irrigation, industrial and other projects and with the upstream nations complaining about those unilateral projects done by the downstream nations and the none cooperative method and approach of Egypt and Sudan and as an outcome of years of disagreement over the Nile water issues and unilaterally decisions and actions taken by the individual countries claiming the Nile River waters and only favoring their own benefits over other Nile nations.
The Entebbe Agreement came in to escalate the none cooperation situation more by geo-politically shifting the control of Nile basin waters away from the downstream nations and gave the upstream countries a legal frame to construct dams, establish different projects and increase their water use for different propos. (7)
With some countries see themselves as victims of other Nile countries who had taken an advantage of certain period of time or situation that they were in, which let some of them to see no benefit now in been cooperative with the others concerning the Nile related issues and looks only at their national interests, but still the diplomatic dialogue and inclusive negotiations between the Nile basin nations is the only way forward to build confidence, trust and cooperation for sustainable future of the Nile and mutual and shared benefits for basin members countries.
A positive engagement between the Nile basin members now can be observed in some steps taken by the countries were technical dialogue and diplomatic approach has increased the sharing of technical and hydrological data between the basin members countries, capacity building workshops and inter-nations trainings and seminars for technicians, policy and decision makers, government officials, diplomats, scientists, researchers, journalists, local and global think-tank institutions, NGOs, regional and other international stakeholders had really helped in easing the interstate political tensions and putting concord foundation for more regional cooperation which will contribute to a better understanding, enhancing the diplomatic relations and cooperation among the basin nations.
To have a sustainable Nile Basin with equal benefits, comprehensive cooperation, joint management, and effective partnership the diplomatic approach and inclusive negotiations is the only solution to overcome years of mistrust and stand off in the Nile Basin region.
*References: –
1- http://www.nilebasin.org/media-center/maps.
2- Dr. Aleu Garang Aleu, Khartoum 2010. The Legal System of the Nile Basin: The impact of South Sudan independence on the Nile water distribution and system management,
3- Aljazeera News, Ethiopia discards Egypt threats over Nile dam, 12 June 2013, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/06/20136128306931161.html
4- BBC News, Egyptian warning over Ethiopia Nile dam, 10June2013,https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-22850124
5- Aljazeera News, Egypt to ‘escalate’ Ethiopian dam dispute, 21April2014, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/04/egypt-escalate-ethiopian-dam-dispute-201448135352769150.html.
6- Heba Salehand John Aglionby, Cairo and Nairobi, DECEMBER 27, 2017,Financial Times Egypt and Ethiopia clash over huge River Nile dam, https://www.ft.com/content/58f66390-dfda-11e7-a8a4-0a1e63a52f9.
7- Dr. Aleu Garang Aleu, Khartoum 2010. The Legal System of the Nile Basin: The impact of South Sudan independence on the Nile water distribution and system management,
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The author is a Journalist, Blogger, TV Producer, Cultural, Political and Youth Activist, postgraduate student of Diplomacy and International Relations at the Institute of Peace, Development and Security Studies- University of Juba; and working currently with South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation and be contacted through E-mail:telar.abra@gmail.comor tell No: +211912577222
