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DAM-L Nile waters apportioned
>HORN OF AFRICA: Nile meeting agrees on redistribution plan
>
>Officials from 10 African nations met in Khartoum over the weekend to
>discuss plans for the redistribution of the Nile waters, PANA news agency
>reported. The meeting including cabinet ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia,
>Sudan and the six Great Lakes states and was backed by the World Bank, the
>United Nations, the US government and several European countries.
>Agreements reached this week on the Nile waters included hydro-electric
>power development, power sharing cooperatives, river regulation and water
>resources management. Agreements are expected to be finalised at an
>extraordinary ministerial meeting in December, reported PANA. The new
>policies will cancel out Egyptian monopoly of the waters under a 1959
>treaty. Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan will form one development block, and the
>remaining six Great Lakes member states (Burundi, DRC, Kenya, Rwanda,
>Tanzania and Uganda) will form the other joint programme.
>
>The US-based Stratford Global Intelligence (SGI) August Update said Cairo
>- which had traditionally monopolised the waters and prevented development
>in the region - had shown support for redistribution plans because
>regional stability was needed in order to improve economic growth in
>Egypt. SGI said Egyptian foreign policy had necessarily shifted in the
>face of a strengthening South Africa, which was building up its military
>strength and "transforming itself into the world's economic gateway to the
>continent". In response, Cairo wants to strengthen its own economic and
>political position and has recently focused on warming relations with
>Ethiopia and Sudan, the SGI report said.
>
>The SGI report said under a contentious 1959 treaty with Sudan, Egypt
>holds the rights to 87 percent of the Nile's waters, with Sudan holding
>the remaining 13 percent. Sudan cannot increase development along the
>river without Egyptian consent. Even though 86 percent of the Nile's water
>originates in the Ethiopian highlands, Ethiopia receives no share of the
>water under the present agreement, the report said. The monopoly of the
>waters had put a strain on regional relations, with Addis Ababa claiming
>that Cairo provided military intelligence, training and arms to separatist
>rebels, contributing to the eventual partitioning of Ethiopia and Eritrea;
>and with regional claims that Cairo backed rebel groups in Ethiopia, Sudan
>and Somalia. But "the government's support for regional insurgents has
>declined recently", said the report, with Cairo making moves towards
>regional peace initiatives, like Sudan and Somalia.
>
>[ENDS]
>
>[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail:
>irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]
>
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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----- End of forwarded message from Lori Pottinger -----