CAIRO: Ministers from the 10 African countries on the Nile river agreed Tuesday to delay the drafting of a new water sharing agreement for six months, a process that has been hampered by Egypt’s refusal to reduce its share of the world’s longest river. The ministers formed committees to review points of contention over the next six months with the hope of reconciling their differences, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported. Egypt enjoys the largest share of any country along the river according to a 50-year old pact. It has resisted an amendment to its share and demanded a veto over any future upstream projects.
Participants in the meeting in Alexandria had hoped to establish a permanent body to oversee water allocation.
“The ministers decided to continue negotiating for the next six months, with the aim of ironing out the points of disagreements through technical committees to reach a unified agreement between all the countries of the Nile basin,” said Egypt’s Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Mohammad Nasreddin Allam, according to MENA.
A 1929 agreement between Egypt and Britain, acting on behalf of its then-east African colonies, set up the original sharing framework and gave Cairo the right to veto upstream projects.
Another agreement 30 years later between Egypt and Sudan gave Cairo an annual 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water. That share is resented by other countries like Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Congo. These countries had planned to sign a separate water sharing agreement because of Egypt’s intransigence, but agreed to delay the effort following Sudanese mediation.
Sudanese Irrigation Minister Kamal Ali told Sudan’s official news agency that the technical teams hope to reach an agreement by January.
Due to the absence of any major dams or hydroelectric projects upstream of it, experts say Egypt can afford to be dismissive of the other states’ concerns since there is little they can do to stop the Nile’s flow. – AP