Ethiopia, Egypt lauded for new era in relations

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

October 4, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) – The Nile Basin Discourse, a civil society network, on Wednesday hailed what it termed as a new chapter in relations and cooperation between Egypt and Ethiopia to settle their long-standing dispute over the Nile’s water.

Relations between Addis Ababa and Cairo were strained under the rule of ousted president Hosni Mubarek. However, bilateral relations recently experienced increasing cooperation and momentum between Ethiopia and the interim government in Egypt towards mutual benefits from the waters resources.

“NBD would like to extend its warmest congratulations to the Ethiopian and Egyptian Prime Minister’s on the recent agreement to open a new chapter of relations based on a win – win strategy and set up a technical team to review the impacts of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam” the group said in a congratulatory letter sent to the prime ministers of both countries.

“NBD applauds Ethiopia’s and Egypt’s commitment to developing an integrated development plan that benefits all the Nile riparian countries,” it added.

The horn of Africa country on April, 2011 officially launched a $4.8 billion dam project on the Blue Nile River near the Sudanese border. The move raised protests by downstream countries (Sudan and Egypt) which have the lion share the water resources on basis of a treaty signed during the colonial era.

Ethiopia argues that the massive power project won’t harm downstream countries but would instead benefit them in terms of water regulation and power exports.

In a new sign of cooperation and better understanding, a tripartite committee of members from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia has been established to assess the possible impact of Ethiopia’s Grand Millennium Dam.

NBD called on countries of the Nile basin to continue cooperation and promote an understanding based on a win-win situation.

“This is the only way to ensure that development is sustainable,” NBD underscored, reiterating its commitment and determination to work with all the Nile riparian governments to strengthen Nile Cooperation and add value to the Nile Basin’s programmes and processes.

Operating under the motto of “one Nile one family” the Nile Basin Discourse is a network of civil society organisations in the Nile Basin from 10 countries of the Nile Basin, namely Burundi, DRC, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

This network seeks to exert a positive influence over the development of projects and programmes under the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and other Nile-related programmes.

Nile Basin Discourse in its website states that “the overarching objective of the NBD is to promote sustainable and equitable development, poverty reduction, and cooperation between all stakeholders in the Nile Basin. Working at the level of civil society engagement, the NBD seeks to maximise the social, economic and environmental benefits available to poor people within Nile countries and to ensure that there is a more equitable distribution of these benefits across the Nile basin as a whole.

(ST)