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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Aug 12 2010 - 09:25:11 EDT
http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2010/08_nile_river_basin_kimenyi.aspx
Turbulence
in the Nile: Toward a Consensual and Sustainable Allocation of the Nile
River Waters
Africa, Environment, Global Economics, Governance, Sustainable Development
Mwangi S. Kimenyi, Director, Africa Growth Initiative
John Mukum Mbaku, Professor of Economics, Weber State University
The Brookings Institution
August 2010 —
*Introduction*
The Nile River is the lifeline for Egyptians. The very survival of Egyptians
and the existence of both modern Egypt and the biblical Egypt of the
Pharaohs are intractably tied to this critical and important resource. In
fact, Egyptian political, economic, social and cultural life are so
intertwined with the Nile that it is not an exaggeration to say that it
would be difficult to envision a viable Egyptian civilization without the
Nile.
Egyptians, of course, are not the only peoples whose civilizations have been
influenced significantly and, to a great extent, shaped by the waters of the
Nile. There are millions of other peoples who today owe their very existence
to the Nile’s waters. Besides Egyptians, other beneficiaries of the Nile are
today found in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Eritrea, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. In today’s Nile River Basin political
economy, each of these 10 riparian countries lay some claim to the river’s
waters. Unfortunately, the legal scheme that governs the exploitation and
allocation of the waters of the Nile River is a set of colonial-era
agreements, which effectively reserved virtually all of the Nile’s waters
for Egypt and Sudan.
The Nile River Agreements have become increasingly contentious and upstream
riparian states have denounced the agreements as irrelevant, anachronistic
and a major constraint to their national interests. Many of them argue that
they should not be bound by what are essentially colonial impositions. Of
course, the main bone of contention is that Egypt wants to bind the upstream
riparian states to agreements that were concluded without their full and
effective participation and which did not take the interests of these
upstream riparian states into account. These states are, therefore,
demanding that the agreements be renegotiated or totally replaced with a
more comprehensive, inclusive and relevant legal
framework.[1]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ftn1>With
significant increase in the demand for water among the Nile River
Basin
states—due not only to rapid population growth but also to expansion of
economic activities and significant improvements in the ability of many of
these states to utilize the waters of the Nile for productive
activities—existing methods of exploitation and allocation of the Nile
waters are leading to an escalation of tensions among the river’s various
stakeholders with the likelihood of open and widespread conflict.
Unfortunately, there does not exist within the region a mutually accepted,
beneficial and enforceable institutional framework that can provide the
legal structure for the efficient, equitable, fair and sustainable
management of the
Nile.[2]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ftn2>
View Larger<https://mail.google.com/reports/2010/08_nile_river_basin_kimenyi/Map.aspx>
------------------------------
[1]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ftnref1>For
example, in 2002 then Kenyan Energy Minister, Raila Odinga (and now
the
country’s prime minister), denounced the Nile Waters Agreements (the 1929
Agreement and the 1959 Agreement) and called them “obsolete” and totally
irrelevant to Kenya’s development agenda. See John Kamau, “Can EA Win the
Nile War?” *The Daily Nation* (Nairobi-Kenya), March 28, 2002.
[2]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ftnref2>For
example, see Valerie Knobelsdorf, “The Nile Waters Agreements:
Imposition and Impacts of a Trans-boundary Legal System,” 44
*Columbia**Journal of Transnational Law
*, (2006).
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