Egypt and Nile Basin Countries

Since the dawn of history, Egypt has realized the importance which the Nile holds to its very existence. It has reclined for its established natural and historical rights to river waters on the compendium of agreements concluded throughout the 20th Century.
 
While all Nile-basin countries, except for Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), were under occupation in the first half of the 20th Century, all agreements concluded between the colonialist powers included some kind of provision ensuring the unfettered flow of Nile waters to Egypt.
 
Moreover, since the 1922 February Declaration of Independence, Egyptian politicians believed that a united Nile Valley (Egypt & Sudan) was essential if any Nile-related projects were to succeed. Egypt's interest in regional cooperation within the Nile-basin group can be evidenced in the 1929 Nile Waters Agreement concluded between Egypt and Great Britain, which represented Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and the Sudan. It stated that no works would be undertaken on the Nile, its tributaries and the Lake Basin, that would reduce the volume of the water reaching Egypt. It also gave Egypt the right to inspect and investigate the whole length of the Nile up to the remote sources of its tributaries in these territories.
 
After having gained its independence in 1956, the Sudan renounced the 1929 Waters Agreement, which prompted renegotiations of controversial provisions. The result was the 1959 agreement creating the first political-based Nile waters coalition in the region.
 
Relations between Egypt and Nile-Basin countries, during the Cold War era, were affected by the outbreak of ethnic and power struggles. However, during the past 18 or so years, with President Mubarak at the helm of Egypt's policy-making process, relations have improved with all Nile-basin countries especially Ethiopia.
 
Agreements of cooperation seeking to optimize use of Nile waters have been many.
 
The Ethiopian Plateau
Several agreements have been signed with Ethiopia from which 85 per cent of Egypt's water originates. The most important are:
 
The Cairo Cooperation Framework of July 1993
Within this framework each countries has committed not to implement water projects harmful to the interests of the other, protect Nile waters, respect the provisions of international law, and consult over projects likely to increase the flow of waters and reduce waste.
 
The Equatorial Plateau
It is where 15 per cent of Egypt's Nile waters originate:
  • The London Agreement of 1906 between Great Britain and independent Uganda.
  • The 1929 Agreement between Egypt and Great Britain, representing Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and the Sudan.
  • The 1991 Agreement between Egypt and Uganda in which the latter expressed full commitment to the 1953 agreement signed on its behalf by its colonizer Great Britain, thus indicating its recognition of the 1929 Waters Agreement. The 1991 Agreement provided that Lake Victoria water policies should be discussed and reviewed by the signatories with the purpose in view of not affecting Egypt's water needs.
 Agreements between Egypt & Sudan
  • The 1929 Agreement
  • The 1959 Agreement, viewed not as abolishing but as supplementary to the 1929 Agreement. It was prompted by Egypt's intent at the time to construct a dam (the High Dam) to control its annual flow of floodwater.
  • The 1959 Agreement provided as follows: a) Egypt to maintain its acquired right to 48 billion cubic meters of Nile waters, Sudan to 4 billion cubic meters at the Aswan checkpoint; b) Egypt to construct the High Dam, the Sudan a reservoir on the Blue Nile.; the Sudan to undertake a number of projects seeking multiply water yield and check the waste from the Nile tributaries and basin with the benefits to be equally shared between the two countries; the two countries to create a joint Nile water committee. The agreement set Egypt's share at 55.5 billion cubic meters per year and Sudan's at 18.5 billion cubic meters per year.
Regional cooperation
Hydromet
Launched in 1967, it first included five Nile-basin, namely Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the Sudan. They were later joined by Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo and Ethiopia.
 
UNDOGO
Launched in 1983 and included the majority of Nile-basin countries in West and Central Africa.
 
TechoNile
Launched December 1992 with Egypt, the Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and DR Congo as working members. The remaining Nile riparians joined as observers.
 
The Nile Basin Initiative
NBI was established in 1998, with all Nile Basin countries, except Eritrea, having joined in a dialogue to create a regional partnership to facilitate the common pursuit of sustainable development and management of Nile resources. Membership of NBI now includes all Nile riparian countries.
 
The Nile Basin Initiative's Shared Vision Program (SVP) is designed to help realize the shared vision of the Nile basin countries: harnessing the resources of the river to create a better life for the [300 million people] who depend on it.
 
SVP Project portfolio includes:
  • The Applied Training Project;
  • The Nile Trans-boundary Environmental Action Project;
  • The Nile Basin Regional Power Trade Project;
  • The Water for Agriculture Project;
  • The Water Resources Planning and Management Project;
  • The Socio-economic Development and Benefit Sharing Project; and
  • The SVP Execution and Coordination Project.
 Egypt has been working on the Applied Training Project to build the skills needed in each NBI country to take a basin-wide or integrated approach to managing the Nile water resources. Such an approach—called “integrated water resources management” (IWRM)--is a holistic approach to planning and allocating water use in terms of what is needed for agriculture, what is needed to generate energy, what is needed for people or households, and what is needed for the environment to sustain itself. The regional project management unit is located in Cairo, Egypt.
 
Throughout, Egypt has worked most energetically to protect the Nile and increase its yield to its own as well to other countries' benefits:
  • In 1925, it helped Sudan construct a Blue Nile reservoir.
  • In 1932, it paid for the expenses of establishing a power-generating station in Khartoum.
  • In 1953, it helped Uganda build a reservoir on the Owen Falls.
  • In 1978, it launched a project of a canal in the as-Sud region. Work on the project was halted because the civil war in the south, but is expected to resume, now that a peace agreement has been reached.
  • In 2004, Egypt committed a sum of US$2 million for the digging in Kenya of 40 water wells.
  • It helped create a water research center in Tanzania.
  • It has offered its technical assistance to improve water management in DR Congo.
 		 
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