ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

ISSUE/EDITION Nr 324 - 15/05/1997

Ethiopia

Nile Conference

by Lammii Guddaa, Ethiopia, 13 March 1997

THEME = INTERNAT.POLITICS

INTRODUCTION

The Fifth Nile 2002 Conference, aimed at ensuring a proper and equitable sharing of the Nile's water resources, was held in Addis Ababa from 24-28 February 1997

The theme of the Conference, was: "Comprehensive Water Resources Development of the Nile Basin - Basis for Cooperation". Representatives came from the riparian states, 17 government and non-governmental organizations as well as from several UN-affiliated organisations. Seeing the heated debates and disagreements on the points presented, as well as the fact that the countries boarding the river are divided in their opinions, the Conference doesn't seem to have attained its objectives.
The River Nile originates from the equatorial plateau (White Nile Sub-Basin), and the Ethiopian Highlands (Blue Nile Sub- Basin). The White Nile only contributes about 12 billion cubic meters out of the 84 billion cubic meters of water that annually reach the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. Ethiopia, once called the "water tower" of Africa, is the single most important country, contributing 86% of the water flow to the Nile. That's not all. An estimated 1,285 billions tons of fertile top soil is annually washed away from the Ethiopian highlands into the Nile; and thus creates the fertile plains of Egypt.
The upper riparian states of the Nile include: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire, Kenya and Tanzania. Egypt and Sudan are the lower riparian states. The demand for water in the Nile basin is dramatically increasing, while the supply is becoming shorter and shorter. Major factors creating shortage of utilizable waters are: frequent drought; inefficient use of water in irrigation; wastage of water from evaporation.
Conference representatives presented papers dealing with the rational, optimum and equitable utilization of the basin's water resources. But how is this going to be realised when lower riparian countries insist on keeping the unjust and unfair status, dealing with use of the Nile waters. This status is governed by treaties drawn up some time ago.

Partisan water treaties

Egypt and Sudan receive preferential treatment dating from British colonial times. This gives both these countries a virtual monopoly over use of the Nile water. More recent treaties, include the 1959 Nile Waters Agreement between the Sudan and Egypt, allotting 18.5 billion cubic meter to the former and 55.5 billion to the latter. The agreement makes no provision for the rights of other riparian states. Egypt still insists that this agreement must stand.
In 1978, the late Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, was quoted as saying: "...any action that would endanger the waters of the Blue Nile....will be faced with a firm reaction on the part of Egypt, even if that action should lead to war". This is clearly "an act of piracy to enforce the legitimacy of the illegitimate", as one Ethiopian scholar put it at the Conference.
With the substantial amount of alluvial soil carried down by the Ethiopian rivers, Egypt has become the "oasis of the desert". Yet Sudan and Egypt do not recognize Ethiopia's right to a fair share of her own rivers. Ethiopia has made its position clear - agriculture can no longer risk relying on the erratic annual rainfall to feed its population which is increasing at an alarming rate.
Due to the lack of substantial development thinking, water resources in the Blue Nile basin are neither planned properly nor managed carefully. According to hydraulic experts, there are 33 major irrigable rivers in the Blue Nile basin of Ethiopia, which has about 2.5 million hectares of irrigable land, not to mention the potential for generating millions of megawatts of hydropower. There are still many other problems affecting the Nile's upper and lower streams and the potential for serious crisis persists. It's obvious that some kind of institutional and comprehensive framework governing the sue of the Nile's water has to be worked out. "The Nile is not an active conflict but a latent one", says Dr.Kinfe Abraham, Director of the International Institute for Peace and Development.
A US-based researcher, participating at the Conference said that a negotiated settlement over the Nile waters is a challenging task, as Egypt is still engaged in gigantic water projects. The Tochkan Canal, inaugurated last November, and the on-going construction of the Zayed Canal create a very dangerous precedence, because other riparians may follow suit and opt for unilateral action.
The Chairman of the Egyptian National Water Research Centre (NWRC) said that these projects do not use any additional waters above the Egyptian water quota (55.5 billion cubic meters), fixed by the 1959 Sudanese-Egyptian agreement.
Between 1959-1971, Egypt developed the Aswan High Dam and created the largest man-made lake in the world. The Sudan has built Sennar Dam, Jobel Aulia Dam, Kashim el Girba Dam, and Rosseria Dam so as to use the Nile water for various development purposes. Use of the river water by the other riparian states, is minimal or practically nil.

Changing the status quo

Nile basin countries are facing growing challenges over their use of what they describe as "their" resources, in a bid to attain self-sufficiency in food. The status quo in the basin, however, is murky as far as the equitable utilization of transboundary water is concerned. According to recent studies, the full operation of the two recently constructed canals in Egypt are undoubtedly causing "significant harm" to the upper riparians states. Ethiopia is now claiming an "equitable share" of her own waters.
Cooperation rather than unilateral moves are now required. Most of the riparian states feel that the way the waters of the Nile are now being used is "grossly unjust", and are calling for new international legislation and renewed negotiations among all the riparian states.

END

CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE

PeaceLink 1997 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement