From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Jul 01 2010 - 09:04:34 EDT
Egypt to offer upstream Nile states more aid
Gamaa Hamduillah <http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/staff/gamaa-hamduillah>
Mohamed el-Badri <http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/staff/mohamed-el-badri>
01/07/2010
<http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/egypt-offer-upstream-nile-states-more-
aid>
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<http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/4783>
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Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Nasr el-Din
Allam will present a report summarizing Egypt's participation in the recent
Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) conference in Addis Ababa to the Egyptian
Council of Ministers on Wednesday. The council will then prepare a full
report on the conference for President Hosni Mubarak.
The NBI conference, which concluded on Sunday, brought together water
ministers from the nine member states of the NBI. Recent media reports have
focused on continuing disagreements between the downstream states--Egypt and
Sudan--and upstream members of the NBI over how to allocate Nile water. Five
upstream states--Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda--signed a
draft framework agreement in Entebbe, Uganda last month, which, if ratified,
would grant them a greater share of the river's water.
Egyptian government sources, however, are putting a positive spin on the
conference. According to these sources, the otherwise productive gathering
was only marred by "outbursts" by Ethiopian Irrigation Minister Asfaw
Dingamo.
The same sources also noted that NBI water ministers would meet again in the
Kenyan capital of Nairobi in November. The officials added that, despite
Sudan's Sunday announcement that it was freezing its membership in the NBI
to protest the upstream states' refusal to renegotiate the Entebbe
agreement, it was expected to join the eight other NBI members at the
Nairobi meeting.
Al-Masry Al-Youm also learned that Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed
Abul-Gheit is scheduled to travel to Ethiopia on 6 July to discuss matters
of bilateral cooperation--particularly as they pertain to water issues--with
his Ethiopian counterpart.
According to the same sources, the Egyptian government is currently
preparing an action plan to present to the upstream states, which will
include doubling the budget of the Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation
with Africa to LE100 million. The fund finances development projects,
training programs and the digging of wells in upstream NBI states. The
Egyptian ministries of foreign affairs, irrigation and foreign cooperation
have been tasked with coordinating implementation of the plan.
In an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm, Hany Raslan, director of the Sudan
and Nile Basin Department at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic
Studies, stated it was unlikely that Sudan's decision to freeze its NBI
membership would negatively affect Egypt. According to Raslan, the move was
meant to send a message to the upstream states, particularly Ethiopia, that
a failure to resolve the impasse at the upcoming emergency meeting could
lead to further escalation.
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