Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Presidents Set For More Talks On The Nile



By Gerald Tenywa
Added 16th October 2017 01:16 PM
Egypt and Sudan, which are favoured by two colonial agreements of 1929 and 1959 were opposed to the fresh agreement (Cooperative Framework Agreement opened for signing in May 2010) on grounds that it does not recognise their historical rights.
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NILE BASIN IMPASSE

A new move to fast track the resolution of the impasse over sharing of the waters of River Nile will involve regular meetings of presidents in the countries sharing the Nile Basin.

This follows a recommendation from the Nile Summit which was chaired by President Yoweri Museveni and convened at State House, Entebbe, three months ago.

“The heads of state provide the highest level of engagement on Nile issues,” said Sam Cheptoris, the Minister of Water and Environment in Uganda, adding that the Summit at Entebbe wanted to constitute the heads of states in the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and meet regularly.

He was  speaking at the Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-Com) convened at Imperial Botanical Resort Beach, Entebbe last week. Nile-COM is the highest decision-making organ on all political and development matters relating to the Nile Basin Initiative.

The meeting was attended by Ministers in charge of Water Affairs from Burundi, Sudan and Uganda. Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania sent representatives.

The countries in the catchment of the Nile are Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Egypt, Eretria and DR Congo. Eretria is an observer.

Egypt and Sudan, which are favoured by two colonial agreements of 1929 and 1959 were opposed to the fresh agreement (Cooperative Framework Agreement opened for signing in May 2010) on grounds that it does not recognise their historical rights. Both countries pulled out of NBI but Sudan later agreed to return. The countries in the Nile Basin have been discussing to resolve outstanding issues for Egypt to participate in the NBI meetings.

NBI is a framework which was set up in 1999 is a Programme of the 11 countries funded by several donors including the World Bank, GIZ and EU. It has been facilitating the meetings of the ministers and technical negotiators. It was expected to produce two outcomes; the Nile Cooperative Framework and the Nile Basin Commission.    

The meeting on Thursday came up with NBI’s 10-year Strategy referred to as the new strategy, approved by the Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-COM). The strategy captures the development goals of the NBI, considering the prevailing context and challenges in the Nile Basin as well as priorities in the catchment of the Nile.

“These have been conceptualized into six goals; namely increasingly hydropower, development and power trade; improving food security; protecting and restoring ecosystems across the basin,” said Kebede Gerba, State Minister, for Water, Irrigation and Electricity of Ethiopia.

“The other goals are improving basin resilience to climate change impacts; strengthening trans-boundary water governance in the Nile Basin as well as enhancing availability and sustainable management of trans-boundary water resources of the Nile Basin.”

Ethiopia’s Minister of Water, Irrigation and Electricity, Dr. Eng. Sileshi Bekele replaced Uganda’s Minister of Water and Environment, Sam Cheptoris. Ethiopia will chair both the Nile Council of Ministers and the Nile Technical Advisory Committee of the NBI for the next one year. 

The Nile-COM is the highest decision-making organ on all political and development matters relating to the Nile Basin Initiative. The meeting was attended by Ministers in charge of Water Affairs from Burundi, Sudan and Uganda. Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania sent representatives.                                                                          
“The River Nile is one of the world’s great assets. As such, cooperation is not a choice, but a necessity, if we are to achieve its sustainable management and development. This is important for Member States to jointly address the shared challenges such as climate change and environmental degradation,” said Gerba.

He said the Nile Basin Development Forum will be hosted by Rwanda on October 23-25, 2017. Rwanda will also host the Nile Media Awards ceremony on October 23, 2017 as well as a Strategic Dialogue Forum between NBI and development partners on October 26, 2017.

Ministers of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia inspect Renaissance Dam - Egypt Today

Water supply ministers of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia at the construction area of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – Press Photo by Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation and Water Supply Water supply ministers of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia at the construction area of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – Press Photo by Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation and Water Supply

CAIRO – 17 October 2017: The Water supply ministers of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia visited the construction area of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on Tuesday. They met to check up on the construction progress by visiting six sites that lie inside, outside, and at the borders of the reservoir.



The ministers and the members of the technical committee listened to the project manager give an overview of the constructions at the right and left sides of the dam.



The manager stressed on Ethiopia’s eagerness to secure its needs from energy and push for economic development while fulfilling the interests of the Nile Basin countries.



This visit aims to follow up on the studies recommended by the International Panel of Experts regarding the effects of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile Basin States.



Since the beginning of the dam's construction in 2011, the upstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, opposed the technical studies of the dam as it would decrease their share in the Nile water resources by 55.5 billion cubic meters and 18.5 billion cubic meters respectively.



However, Ethiopia denies that other downstream countries will be adversely affected by the dam and the prospect of war was raised in 2013 and 2014.



President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi signed a tripartite joint cooperation agreement in Khartoum on March 23, 2015, between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. The three countries held 14 rounds of consultation on resolving the disputes over the Renaissance Dam. However, these rounds failed to solve the dispute.



Consequently, the Nile Basin countries asked the French firm Artelia Group to join the French consulting group BRL IngĂ©nierie in 2016, while they study the documents of the dam’s construction; assessing the hydrological, environmental, and economic impact of the mega project on the downstream countries

Monday, October 9, 2017

Egypt: ‘Obstacles’ threaten agreement over Ethiopia dam – Middle East Monitor

Egypt: ‘Obstacles’ threaten agreement over Ethiopia dam

Constriction work on the Renaissance dam in Ethiopia on 21 August 2015 [Sigma PlantFinder/Twitter]
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that there are obstacles threatening the tripartite “Declaration of Principles” signed in March 2015 by Cairo, Sudan and Ethiopia over a dam being built by the latter on the Nile River.
Shoukry’s remarks came in an interview with the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper yesterday, where he said Egypt “couldn’t overcome” these obstacles.
The minister noted that the agreement includes Ethiopia’s acknowledgement of the do-no-harm principle in a document signed with the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. The document also stipulates that “Egypt acknowledges the dam and Ethiopia’s developmental needs and Sudan would be a third party in this equation,” Shoukry added.
“The agreement includes the acknowledgement by the three parties that any repercussions resulting from the [construction of] the dam must be approved by a non-biased party so that conflict will not occur, and the non-biased entity would refer to purely scientific considerations, and scientific facts and equations that are not subject to interpretation.”
The Egyptian foreign minister also commented on the technical aspect, pointing to “slowness” and “obstacles” that could not be overcome at the technical or political levels. He said that these obstacles “threaten the principles that the tripartite agreement were based on” without giving details on the nature of those obstacles.
In line with another deal reached in September 2016, the three parties to the agreement are awaiting the results of a technical report that is being prepared by two consulting companies on the Ethiopian dam and the damage it could cause to other countries that share Nile waters, mainly Egypt.
The technical report must be completed before the dam is fully constructed, Shoukry told Al-Ahram, because it will affect any decisions related to the phase of filling the dam and the rules that will be adopted for operating it.
“Achievements on this path are not at the pace we hope for, and we urge our partners in Ethiopia and Sudan to interact in a way that will create confidence, reinforce agreements and avoid any confrontation.”
“At the same time, we know very well what our interests are and the threats that we might be subjected to, and we act in every phase in line with developments. We do not pre-empt events or assume things in a theoretical manner, but that does not mean that we do not prepare ourselves for any orientation, disagreement or approach.”