African Church Information Service

July 28, 2003
Posted to the web July 28, 2003

Osman Njuguna
Nairobi

With fears that the next round of conflicts in Africa could be pegged on water, where River Nile is poised to play a central role, countries within the Nile basin are being challenged to resolve volatile issues that may lead to such a calamity. The Nile Treaty, which gives Egypt powers to control the use of River Nile waters, is one such controversial factor being debated currently. But how did this skewed agreement come into force? AANA Correspondent Osman Njuguna unveils some details.

In mid June, 27 legislators of the Arusha-based East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) converged at Kenya's lakeside city of Kisumu to discuss equitable sharing of the Nile waters among states of the Nile basin.

The legislators expressed concern that the God-given waters of River Nile were not being equitably shared among eligible users due to a controversial 1929 agreement, sealed between Egypt and Britain.

The agreement, known as the Nile Waters Agreement or Nile Treaty, favoured Egypt on the use of Nile waters at the expense of other users.

It gave Egypt immense powers to control the use of waters of the longest river in the world. The Nile River has its basin spread across ten states. These are Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt.

The legislators were bitterly critical of the treaty. One of them, Maxwell Shamalla, was reported to have said: "We cannot continue to be prisoners of a treaty that impoverishes our people and benefits others, yet we own the resource." The three-day meeting ended with a recommendation that affected countries should take a united position against the 74-year-old treaty, and renegotiate as a block, issues relating to the use of River Nile.

Some observers note that while the treaty might have passed unnoticed in the past, it is a central focus today due to increasing demand for water. It is estimated that about 123 million people depend of the waters of River Nile for livelihood. "The high increase of population that goes with the need for food production, is one of the possible driving forces behind the current call by East Africans to have equitable sharing of the Nile waters," remarks Kenyan legislator and outspoken environmentalist, Professor Wangari Maathai.

Expressing support for the call by the East African legislators to have the controversial treaty repealed, Prof Maathai, who is also an Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, told AANA: "We should not allow ourselves to continue to respect such agreements, which were supposedly sealed between Egypt and our colonial masters (Britain), claiming [to be doing so] on our behalf."

Apparently, not many have been aware that Egypt controls extensive use of Nile waters, and that other countries would need to seek permission from Egyptian authorities before embarking on any major projects on the Nile basin.

A Kenyan Catholic archbishop, Zachaeus Okoth, may still be struggling to get to terms with the response he got when he suggested that Kenya should seriously consider pumping out water from Lake Victoria to the dry parts of the country to boost food production through irrigation.

"If we can do the same with petrol, why can't we do the same with the water?" he posed. He had to be reminded that some agreements signed last century "barred" this from happening.

But as the Nile Basin Initiative, an organisation linking the 10 riparian countries, seeks to lobby for a new agreement on the use of River Nile, some historical facts on the matter may be worth exploring.

In his latest book, Southern Sudan: Too Many Agreements Dishonoured, Abel Alier, a Sudanese legal expert and veteran politician, notes that Egypt's search for control of the Nile, on which depends its livelihood, started in the 19th Century with construction of barrages and canals for irrigation necessary for feeding a rapidly growing population.

As the population grew, works inside Egypt proved inadequate, necessitating extension of control and conservation systems of the Nile to Sudan, Ethiopia, and East Africa. "That was achieved either through conquest in the Sudan, or agreements with Ethiopia and the East African countries," points out Alier.

Egypt's task was made easier by her allies, especially Great Britain, which concluded treaties with other colonial powers and Ethiopia, securing for Egypt, guarantees for the natural uninterrupted Nile flow from Lake T'ana in Ethiopia, among other equatorial lakes.

After the sources of the Nile were secured, Egypt proposed, in 1904, to increase the Nile yield through a process involving diversion of waters from the Sudd region in southern Sudan, and provision of water storage facilities on the Blue Nile and Lake T'ana.

The need for the diversion of water in the Sudd region (White Nile) gave rise to a proposed diversion canal project, which went on smoothly without Sudan raising a finger. This was mainly because northern Sudan depended then on rain for agriculture, applying very limited irrigation.

Southern Sudan depended exclusively on rain water. "But this harmony of interests did not continue for long," says Alier.

A clash emerged around 1910, when the British government proposed large-scale cotton growing, using Blue Nile waters to irrigate Gezira region in Northern Sudan. Egypt's responded with a protest, and Britain countered by claiming more water for the Sudan.

However, an amicable solution was eventually worked out, resulting in the construction of the Sennar and Jebel Aulia dams. The former provided irrigation water in the Gezira, and the latter supplemented the summer water needs of Egypt.

A final agreement defining the volumes of Nile waters to be exploited by the two countries was sealed in 1929. This is what came to be known as the Nile Waters Agreement or Nile Treaty, which empowered Egypt and Sudan to extensively exploit the Nile Basin, but excluded other eligible countries.

The agreement has been used to date by Egypt, frustrating countries of the Nile basin intending to initiate development projects along River Nile waters. Apparently, this status quo has quietly been yielding some tension.

In a book titled, Scarcity And Surfeit: The Ecology of Africa's Conflicts, a group of researchers predict that the main conflicts in Africa during the next 25 years could be about water. The Nile River is considered to be a likely flash point for such conflicts, they say, noting: "Areas of water stress are likely to see increased competition as populations grow and the available fresh water per capita decreases".

A deputy director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Halifa Drammeh confirms that "the potential conflict over shared water resources is real". According to him, "the issues requiring negotiation and agreement among states have grown more complex".

The UNEP official advises that, "greater flexibility and more imaginative ways of sharing water resources will be increasingly necessary over the coming decades, as population pressures... and factors such as climate change, place greater demands on already stretched freshwater reserves".