Nile Basin Initiative - Initiative By Upstream Countries To Form A Nile River Basin Commission

Initiative By Upstream Countries To Form A Nile River Basin Commission

In May 2010 five upstream states signed an agreement to seek more water from the River Nile — a move strongly opposed by Egypt and Sudan. The Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA), which had been negotiated for years under the framework of the NBI, is open for signature for a period of one year. Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania signed the agreement. The DR Congo is also expected to sign, while Egypt and Sudan are not expected to do so. An Egyptian government spokesman said in May 2010 that "Egypt will not join or sign any agreement that affects its share".

The signing of the agreement had already been planned during a Ministerial meeting in 2007, but had been delayed at the request of Egypt. Upstream countries then decided at another Ministerial meeting in Kinshasa in May 2009 to sign the agreement without having all countries sign at the same time. However, the signing was delayed and at the next Council of Minister meeting in April 2010 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt again asked to defer the signing. The article on water security (Article 14b) has particularly drawn objections from Egypt and Sudan. The article says that member countries would work together to ensure "not to significantly affect the water security of any other Nile Basin State." Egypt and Sudan want the article to read "Not to adversely affect the water security and current uses and rights of any other Nile Basin States" without the qualification "significantly". A former Egyptian minister of water resources and irrigation, Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, sees the framework agreement as a positive beginning, saying that "everybody agreed to more than 95 percent of the articles". An article on the protection and conservation of the basin and its ecosystem - such as the Sudd in Sudan - and an article requiring "prior informed consent" before building new dams had also been controversial during earlier negotiations. Representatives of upstream countries said they were "tired of first getting permission from Egypt before using river Nile water for any development project like irrigation", as required by a treaty signed during the colonial era between Egypt and Britain in 1929. The agreement does not include fixed water shares for each riparian country. The agreement, once effective, will transform the NBI into a permanent Nile River Basin Commission.