Egypt no longer has powers to dictate over use of the waters- study
By Benson Kathuri, The Standard
NAIROBI, Feb 23, 2005 — The 1929 water treaty between the British government and Egypt does not prevent Kenya from using the waters of the Nile.
A study commissioned by a German NGO says Egypt no longer has powers to dictate to other countries over the use of the waters.
“The River Nile water treaties are no longer binding and operational as only post-colonial agreements can be said to be valid,” says Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung Foundation in a paper on the Nile water and its effects on East African countries.
The study was commissioned following prolonged debate over the obsolete treaty and is likely to spark off another debate among the ten riparian states that share the water of the longest river in the world.
Egypt, which is the biggest beneficiary of the river, maintains that the treaty forbidding other countries from using the water for irrigation and power generation is still valid and binding. River Nile provides 95 per cent of Egypt’s water needs for power generation, irrigation and domestic use.
The agreement entered on May 7, 1929, between the UK and Egyptian governments, said no irrigation or power works or measures are to be constructed or taken on the River Nile and its tributaries.
The agreement also forbids countries from using waters of Lake Victoria that is the source of White Nile and that has affected Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
“Save for the previous agreement of the Egyptian government, no irrigation or power works are to be constructed or taken from the River Nile or on the lakes from which it flows, so far as all these are in the Sudan or in countries under British administration,” said the treaty.
However, the NGO working in conjunction with the Law and Policy Research Foundation, a Kenyan research body says since most countries are now independent, the UK can no longer be seen to represent interests of former colonies.
The bodies argue that only the 1952 treaty entered between Sudan and Egypt can be negotiated because both countries were independent. The treaty, which does not involve the other riparian countries of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burundi, Rwanda and DR Congo, was initiated by Sudan.
Sources say Sudan wanted to use the waters to expand land under irrigation but found the 1929, agreement very restrictive.
Even under the 1929 treaty, Egypt recognised and respected the position taken by Sudan over the use of the waters while totally ignoring other countries from where the river originated.
Egypt threatened war should they engage in activities that would reduce considerably the amount of water flowing into the country.
“We depend upon the Nile 100 per cent in our life, so if anyone, at any moment, thinks of depriving us of our life we shall never hesitate to go to war,” said the late Anwar Sadat, the former Egyptian president.
Speaking in 1978, Sadat said Egypt, a desert country, relied on the Nile for its agricultural economy besides producing cheap electricity that drives the Egyptian industries.
However, with increasing need to use the water for irrigation from both River Nile and Lake Victoria among other states, the treaty is now a subject of heated debate within the region and beyond.
Already Ethiopia is planning to construct a new facility on the Blue Nile to supply irrigation water for 1.5 million settlers in the Western province of Welga.
Probably the East African countries should blame themselves for the prolonged problem that has denied them a chance to use the waters on the scale of Sudan and Egypt.