Ethiopian Review

By Yohannes Anberbir

Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Dr. Mohamed Nasr Eldin Allam, pledged his government’s willingness to train Ethiopian water experts when he visited his Ethiopian counterpart this week.
The minister was appointed on March 11, 2009 replacing Mahmoud Abu Zeid, who had been criticised for his weak bargaining on Nile issues; Egypt says it is because of a health problem.
The new minister has been visiting Nile riparian countries, a move considered as lobbying to maintain his country’s position in the basin.
The minister held a discussion with top Ethiopian Government officials, including Asfaw Dingamo, Minister of Water Resource.
In a discussion with Asfaw, the minister explained his country’s willingness to cooperate with Ethiopia and offer high level training to Ethiopian water experts, including paying their expenses, Minister Asfaw told Capital.
The Nile Basin Initiative has an institute based in Egypt that has been giving a short term Applied Training Programs on water issues to all riparian countries and Ethiopia has been taking this opportunity, the minister said.
“However, we accepted the new Egyptian minister offer and we issued a communiqué explaining our acceptance,” Asfaw said
Apart from the offer, Egypt’s minister requested an explanation over Ethiopian stance on Nile issue, however, Asfaw said his Government’s position was fixed.
An exclusive agreement was signed between Egypt and Sudan in 1959 that allocates 55.5 billion cubic metres of water to Egypt, and 18.5 billion cubic metres to the Sudan. Strangely, not a single drop was allocated to Ethiopia, despite it contributing 85 per cent of the water in the basin.
However, Ethiopia and other riparian countries have been negotiating to revise contents of the 1959 agreement. They agreed on most of the amending articles, but one proposed by Ethiopia remains a bone of contention.
The article deals with the possibility of water sharing without causing significant harm to other riparian countries, however this article divided negotiators of the countries into two major blocks: upper riparian countries – a host of countries under Ethiopia’s leadership and including Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi; and the lower riparian countries, which are Egypt and the Sudan.
Egypt and Sudan rejected the article unless a sentence that guarantees there will be no damage to water security is inserted – a position that will allow the two countries to continue to use the water intensively and extensively.
This division halted a decade long negotiation process that had been held in Nile Basin Ministerial Council.
“We explained about our rigid stance to the Egypt Minister and told him to lighten the gloomy negotiations,” Asfaw told Capital.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the current chair of the Nile Council of Ministers, however, Egypt will take the position in the July, which may give it an opportunity to influence other nations.
There will be a last conference hosted by DRC before the chairman position is taken by Egypt.
The conference will bring a three point proposal that could improve Ethiopia’s position if accepted, according to Minister Asfaw.

(Capital)