From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed Jan 14 2009 - 08:19:13 EST
DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: New Nile Pact Stalled
By Joshua Kyalimpa
<http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45403>
http://www.ipsnews.net/fotos/20090114_NileBasinFramework_Edited.jpg
Sustainable and equitable management is needed to preserve livelihoods along
the Nile River.
Credit:Wikimedia Commons
KAMPALA, Jan 14 (IPS) - Ten years of negotiations over a new protocol
governing shared use of the Nile River are hanging in the balance, with
Egypt and Sudan refusing to give up their present power over how much water
is used by countries further upstream.
The current agreement prohibits countries downstream from using Nile waters
beyond an agreed curve, and gives Egypt powers to monitor the flow at key
points.
"The technocrats had worked out all the paper work for a good protocol but
the politicians have thrown a clean piece of cloth in the mud," says
Professor Afuna Aduula, chair of the Nile Basin Discourse Forum, a
consortium of civil society organisations looking at issues along the
world's longest river.
The article in the new draft which has caused the stalemate is 14b,
concerning water security. Water use by countries upstream has long been
restricted by the terms of the colonial agreement signed on their behalf by
Britain in 1929, and re-affirmed in 1954.
The Nile basin has a population of 160 million people in an area of 3.1
million square kilometres -- including 81,500 sq km of lakes and 70,000 sq
km of swamps, according to statistics from the Nile Basin Initiative, a body
set up by Nile riparian states with funding from various donors to harmonise
policy over the Nile.
Over the years, water levels in Lake Victoria, a major source of water for
the Nile, have been falling. Water levels in 2008, were 2.5 metres lower
than three years earlier. This is believed to be due to a combination of
factors, including declining rainfall and increased use -- and it is causing
panic among states that share the Nile.
The 10 countries sharing the river under the Nile Basin Initiative have been
negotiating a new framework agreement to manage the river's water for the
last 10 years. The countries are Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Eritrea,
Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, DR Congo and Uganda.
The Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework's article 6 talks about
protection and conservation of the basin and its ecosystem and
environmentalists look at this as a milestone in maintaining the water
levels from a wider catchment area feeding into the lake.
But Frank Muramuzi of Uganda's National Association of Professional
Environmentalists believes a deadlock could undermine regional conservation
and development activities under the Nile Basin Initiative. He thinks a new
protocol would guarantee countries like Egypt and Sudan more water.
"The protocol would set a framework for sustainable use of water resources
from the river Nile," says Muramuzi. But if the status quo remains, waters
from Lake Victoria the major reservoir for the Nile will continue to recede
and shortages may result into conflicts, he adds.
The treaty being considered now also has five other major clauses which
generated heated debate in previous negotiations. These include article 4,
which is on equitable and reasonable use of the Nile waters, article 5
(prevention of harm to the waters), article 6 (protection and conservation
of the basin and its ecosystem) and article 8 (prior informed consent before
using the waters).
Egypt and Sudan, which have largely desert land, have been opposed to the
treaty, fearing it would cut them off from the Nile waters.
In the new document, clause 14b concerning on prior informed consent was
amended after Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo pushed
for its alteration to "information concerning planned measures".
The new wording puts a check on the 1929 treaty, which required the riparian
states to seek permission before using the Nile waters. The document further
provides for establishment of a Nile Basin Commission, with its headquarters
in Entebbe, Uganda.
The decision on the matter is now in suspense because negotiators have
passed the issue on to the 10 heads of state of the Nile basin to conclude.
Callist Tindimugaya, Uganda's commissioner in the Ministry of Water, told
IPS that what can be done now is to continue cooperating, pending the
resolution of the contentious clause in the new protocol.
According to Professor Patrick Rubaihayo, an expert on development based in
Makerere University, Kampala, many of the upstream countries risk missing
millennium development goal targets should a new and more equitable protocol
not be signed.
"Continuing extreme poverty is one of the consequences if a new protocol is
not signed," he said.
A vibrant agriculture sector is seen as an essential vehicle for
development, but Rubaihayo cannot envision this developing without
investment in massive irrigation schemes. The colonial agreement on sharing
the Nile's waters makes these schemes difficult because Egypt and Sudan must
approve irrigation projects, and flatly refuse.
Uganda's Minister for Water, Jennifer Namuyangu, says the discussion is an
opportunity for countries like Uganda to correct a historical anomaly. She
says Uganda will not accept a lopsided pact over the use of the Nile.
Professor Aduula believes Egypt's refusal to sign a new protocol could be
based on a calculation that one of their own is in line to become head of
the Nile Basin Initiative and therefore influence the process. According to
the charter that set up the Initiative, the head rotates among the member
countries of the basin and the director serves a term of two years. The
current head is Henrietta Ndombe a Congolese who will lead the organisation
until September 2010 when someone from Egypt will take over.
Egypt wants a clause which states that other countries sharing the Nile
should not use water to the detriment of another country. Other countries
want that clause deleted altogether because of the implication that
countries' upstream will have to get consent to construct hydro-electric
dams and irrigation projects.
But according to Gordon Mumbo, who is in charge of confidence building among
member states of the Nile basin, there is now thinking that the matter
should be passed on to the council of foreign ministers because the heads of
state have been hard to get together for a signing.
He says the chance to sign at the sidelines of the Africa union summit in
Cairo, Egypt, four months ago was missed because of disagreements.
(END/2009)
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