EU urges upstream countries for more talks with Egypt, Sudan over Nile water

May 13, 2010 (CAIRO) – The European Union has urged today seven Nile Basin countries to reconsider the signing of a new water sharing deal without prior agreement with Egypt and Sudan.

Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda announced they will sign on Friday the Nile River Cooperative Framework Agreement to administer the longest river in the world despite the opposition of Egypt and Sudan.

Marc Franco, who heads the European Union delegation in Egypt, issued the appeal the seven countries were expected to launch the signing on Friday of a new water-sharing deal. It would “not be a very good idea for seven countries to sign a document at this stage,” Franco told a news conference in Cairo.

A separate deal would “make the political problems that exist worse,” added Franco, urging all countries concerned “to bridge the gaps” and “see what can be done to find a compromise.”

The water Nile is governed by two treaties. The 1929 agreement signed between Egypt and Great Britain (representing for colonies including Sudan), gave Cairo the right to veto projects higher up the Nile that would affect its water share.

The other document is the 1959 agreement, between Egypt and Sudan. It gave Egypt the right to 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water a year and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic meters per year.

The new agreement would replace a 1959 accord between Egypt and Sudan. The seven upstream countries have been negotiating for years with Egypt and Sudan to clinch a more equitable agreement but talks have failed to produce any fruit.

The upstream countries say past treaties are unfair and they want an equitable water-sharing agreement that would allow for more irrigation and power projects.

Egypt and Sudan are sticking to colonial-era pacts which give them over 85% of the Nile water. The two countries say the upstream countries have other sources of water while Egypt gets all its water needs from the Nile. Cairo also projects possible shortages by 2017.

However the upstream countries say they are going to ink on Friday the new deal which will allow the others to join it within a year.

“What we are doing is launching the signing. Any country that feels they cannot sign now but may be ready to sign later will have one year,” Jennifer Namuyangu Byakatonda, Uganda’s state minister for water said as it organize the signing ceremony in Entebbe.

Byakatonda told the AFP that the upstream countries will not capitulate to demands for further negotiations.

“Negotiations are closed,” she said. “The terms will not change.”

The Ugandan minister however admitted in statements to Reuters today “We’ve not been insensitive to Egyptian concerns about water security but what we are opposed to is their insistence on maintaining their veto as it is in the colonial agreements,” Namuyangu said.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit warned in statements published on Saturday that Cairo’s water rights were a “red line” and threatened legal action if a unilateral deal is reached.

(ST)