Sudan freezing its membership in the Nile basin initiative
June 27, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese irrigation minister Kamal Ali Mohamed announced today that his country is freezing its membership in the Nile basin initiative to protest other countries insistence on sticking to the Entebbe accord on reallocating water shares.
The water ministers of Egypt and Sudan, the largest consumers of the Nile’s waters, were in the Ethiopian capital this week to discuss the increasingly contentious issue, which is pitting them against five other riparian countries.
Five countries in East Africa which signed the controversial Nile basin initiative refused to back off from the accord despite strong objections by Egypt and Sudan.
Both countries have refused any alteration to the pre-existing accords of 1929 & 1959 which gave it veto power over upstream projects.
Some of the Nile Basin countries, which include Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, say past treaties are unfair and they want an equitable water-sharing agreement that would allow for more irrigation and power projects.
Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda inked a framework in March replacing a 1929 colonial-era treaty between Egypt and Britain which gave Cairo veto power over upstream projects.
“The deal cannot be forced upon us. It will only be an obligation for those countries, not Egypt’s,” Mohamed Nasr Al-Deen Allam, Egypt’s water resources minister, told Agence France Presse (AFP).
“Egypt has no source of water other than that coming from upstream countries. The upstream countries have many sources and aren’t managing our Nile properly. That’s what we are asking for,” he said.
“The problem can be solved easily if we appreciate the conditions of each country,” Allam added.
“We will never sign the treaty unless all controversial issues are resolved. Legal implications will still exist even if six countries sign it,” his Sudanese counterpart said.
The new deal would need at least six signatories to come into force with indications that DR Congo and Burundi may soon follow suit, but Egypt and Sudan have so far refused to give up the previous arrangement which gave them the lion’s share of the river’s flow.
Many observers in Sudan have questioned the government’s keen interest in siding with Egypt on the matter despite needing more water to meet growing demand.
(ST)
jur_likang_a_ likan'g
Sudan freezing its membership in the Nile basin initiative
“Our Nile” is not properly managed says the Egyptian Official. Look at how arrogant the Arab Official is!! Please stop thinking the Africans are not entitled for a fair share of their natural resource. The whole issue here is equal share of the water as the climate in the African continent becomes variable and unpredictable as much as possible.
telfajbago
Sudan freezing its membership in the Nile basin initiative
The Nile basin countries must go a head to nullify the prejudiced a agreements of 1929 and that of 1956.An agreement which signed by colonial powers and Egypt should not oblige them to get their fair share of Nile water, it doesn’t give sense at all to continue taking my quota and when I need it you speak about legal implications, what about the legal implications of the stolen water of the past years?.Furthermore; Sudanese have been enjoying Nile water at the expense of African countries, nevertheless ,they continued treating Sudanese Africans worse than slaves in their own country, committing genocide against the black African Sudanese in Darfur and heinous crimes in South Sudan Nuba Mountain and Blue Nile, I think it’s time for Sudan and Egypt to know the value of black skin.