Ethiopians urge US to play major role to resolve Nile water controversy

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

August 9, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – Ethiopians and Ethiopian-Americans living in Washington DC urged the U.S. government to play a significant role in bringing a lasting solution to the calls for equitable utilization of the Nile River waters among riparian states.

Hundreds of Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia last week rallied in Washington DC in support of the Nile Basin agreement equitable, which aims to divide water from Africa’s longest river more equally.

The Ethiopian-Americans expressed grave concern on the matter, hinting a possibility of the controversy turning in to confrontation further calling on the U.S. Secretary of State to take supportive steps to bring an inclusive resolution for the questions of equitable utilization to the Nile River water resources.

After more than a decade of talks rejecting the outdated colonial era Nile water treaty signed in 1929 and 1959; Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya signed the agreement in May without the other Nile Basin countries – Egypt, Sudan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – who have one year to join the pact.

Rally organizers told Media outlets that Ethiopia is in the middle of very important negotiations among the nine Nile Basin States which has the potential to escalate to a violent conflict if mishandled.

Ethiopia believes that this age old problem can be resolved through negotiations that should produce an acceptable solution that protects the interests of all riparian nations of the Nile, they said.

We believe that the United States should play a supportive positive role in helping to resolve this controversy. A fair and equitable resolution of the issue will greatly assist Ethiopia in its efforts to make poverty a thing of the past and continue the momentum of economic growth, they added.

Upstream countries argue that until now Egypt and Sudan have kept an unfair share of water from the Nile sharing advantage over other Nile basin countries including Ethiopia, which contributes over 80% of the total waters to the Nile basin.

Representatives of upstream countries say they are “tired of first getting permission from Egypt before using river Nile water for any development project like irrigation”, as required by a treaty signed during the colonial era between Egypt and Britain in 1929.The new agreement, once effective, is designed to replace the Nile Basin Initiative.

An agreement signed in 1929 between Egypt and Great Britain, which represented its African colonies along the 5,584 kilometres (3,470 mile) river, gave Egypt veto power over upstream projects.

Another agreement signed in 1959 between Egypt and Sudan allowed Egypt alone to use 55.5 billion cubic meters (87% of the Nile’s flow) and Sudan 18.5 cubic metres of water each year. Ethiopia, the biggest water contributor to the Nile basin, and the rest of the riparian countries has been left out.

According to Report from the Ministry of Water Resources, Ethiopia, with an area of 1.08 million square kilometers, has twelve river basins with a mean annual flow of roughly 120.22 billion cubic meters of water.

NBI member countries include Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

(ST)