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Uganda |
INTERNAT. RELAT.
Uganda is somewhat suspicious about Egypt’s intentions
vis à vis the waters
of the River Nile
Baguma Isoke, Uganda’s Junior Minister for Lands, Water and Mineral Resources, is rather suspicious about a $13m grant by Egypt to Uganda this financial year. The grant is intended to improve the flow of the Nile at Kyoga, central Uganda. The minister said the whole project seems to give the impression of providing more water to Egypt, rather than saving Ugandans from the Nile’s flood waters.
The project involves construction of a new channel and enlarging the existing one on Lake Kyoga, to avoid the flooding which in 1998 killed scores of people, affected 13,000 people and destroyed millions of shillings worth of property.
Minister Isoke says the project has sinister designs — to drain Lake Kyoga with its feeder lakes, thus reducing it to a stream — which will have disastrous consequences for the whole of Teso region in eastern Uganda. Environmentalists have added their voices, saying the project will seriously affect the fishing industry. The Government of Uganda’s suspicions are strengthened by reports that Egypt has begun a massive irrigation project in the western desert. The project will carry 5bn cubic meters of water to irrigate more than 200,000ha.
But where will the huge amounts of water needed for Egypt’s project come from? Uganda’s government is trying to figure it out, especially as Henry Kajura, Uganda’s Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources has already told Parliament that the Nile waters are over-committed. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has also said in one of its studies, that there is a 30% water deficit along the Nile valley.
Egypt already consumes a high percentage of the Nile waters and enjoys 85% of the water rights, by virtue of the 1959 treaty with Sudan. Much of this water supply originates from the Blue Nile flowing from Ethiopia. The White Nile covers 5,584 km. The Blue Nile only 1529 km.
From Lake Kyoga, the Kyoga Nile enters a series of rapids and falls before it flows into Lake Albert, 410m lower than Lake Kyoga. Lake Kyoga covers 26,796 square kilometres. Egypt’s $13m grant would seem to be the first positive Egyptian response to the troubles Uganda has had with flooding arising from the rising level of Lake Victoria. In 1964 the first flood occurred, when the level rose to 13m above its normal 11 metres. In 1998 the level rose to 12.5 metres as a result of the El-Nino rains. Egypt has made other goodwill gestures by constructing a $50m industrial park near Kampala and has pledged to build a $5m five star hotel in the heart of Kampala. There’s also talk of constructing a $200m power dam at Kalangala in Mukono district.
Egypt’s commercial and political influence in Uganda
All in all, Egypt gives the impression of wanting to strengthen its commercial influence in Uganda. Muhammed Salar a youthful Agricultural graduate at the Egyptian mission in Kampala has a brief to aggressively pursue Egypt’s commercial interests. Egypt also wants to replace Israel in the establishment of irrigation projects in Uganda.
What’s happening embodies a new pragmatic approach by Egypt in her relations with countries with which she shares the Nile River. Egypt has even indicated she is willing to give up her virtual control of water rights. The question is «why»? This new attitude is arising from economic, political and environmental imperatives and the realisation that monopolising the water rights is increasingly untenable. Egypt may be opting for closer cooperation with African countries for her own economic needs, and probably realises she must act fast before anybody else takes the initiative. Egypt is afraid that South Africa may dominate whole areas of Africa.
Egypt is also pursuing her political influence. Her involvement in Somalia’s peace efforts, her joint bid with Libya for the reconciliation effort of Uganda and Sudan, are a case in point.
Yet Egypt still suffers from a crisis of confidence. She has long been suspected of fomenting trouble within the Nile valley countries, a sentiment that is still strong in Ethiopia where the bulk of the Nile waters originate. Ethiopia, which is recovering from years of civil war, insists she is not bound by the 1959 agreement drawn up between Britain and Egypt concerning the sharing of the Nile waters. Ethiopia refuses to recognise the Egyptian water rights.
Egypt’s backing of rebel groups in Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia is still fresh in the minds of the governments concerned. The Addis Ababa government still harbours thoughts that Egypt was a force behind the partitioning of Ethiopia into Ethiopia and Eritrea. Sudan has not forgotten that Egypt still maintains some contacts with the SPLA.
Uganda still remembers the days when the Egyptian supplied military hardware to the besieged Lutwa government, which preceded Museveni’s regime. Ties between Sudan and Uganda are not close, partly because Uganda still supports the SPLA which has also not dropped the idea of partitioning Sudan. Apparently when Egypt restored ties with Rwanda at the height of a violent conflict with Uganda in 2000, Ugandans kept a watching brief on what was happening, remembering that Egypt was very close to the Habyarimana regime.
International concern
There is growing international concern to have the Nile problem solved. The World Bank, the UN, several western countries are backing plans to lay the groundwork for the river’s economic development. Foremost is the establishment of the necessary infrastructure and framework. Regional headquarters of the Nile Basin organisation are being established. And Italy is making $5m available for the construction of a regional headquarters in Uganda.
The eight riparian countries have agreed to form themselves into two blocks: Egypt, Ethiopia and the Sudan; Uganda, Congo RDC, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania form the second block. These countries are now beginning to appreciate that, as Minister Henry Kajura recently, said: «The Nile is a gift from God which no single country should monopolise».
Then there’s the environment. Are interested countries willing to resolve environmental issues in order to keep the Nile waters clean and wholesome? East African countries are implementing the Lake Victoria Environmental project which is costing $27m and is aimed at keeping the water clean. Uganda is also insisting that those countries which pollute the water, must pay adequate compensation.
Egypt has been left with no alternative but to cooperate with all these proposed initiatives if she wants to maintain her influence in the riparian states.
ANB-BIA received the following comments on the above article. Normally we do not publish reactions to material published, but we thougt the following would interest our readers-
Uganda is suspicious about Egypt?
I was somewhat taken aback by the previous article. No one can deny that it has elements of truth, but...
I hope that it is clearly understood that the Nile should not be managed for the benefit of one country but for the benefit of all, if and when national interests will surpass the group interests, the Nile Basin Initiative would have failed.
This is why, in my humble opinion, communication is a key issue for the success of the NBI. Communication is to be produced and managed by environmentally-aware and politically unbiased personnel. There are two to achieve this, which hopefully will be combined:
We cannot ignore the past, but most important we cannot destroy the hope of a peaceful prosperous future for all.
Nabil M.
El-Khodari - M.B.; B.Ch., M.Sc.
Founder & CEO - Nile Basin Society
http://nile.ca/ - http://nilebasin.com/ - http://www.nilecom.net/
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