The 3rd Nile Basin Development Forum closes in Kigali | capitaleritrea

Posted on 29 October 2011
Tags: east africa, Eritrea, Forum, Kigali, Nile Basin

KIGALI, Rwanda – The President of the Senate of the Republic of Rwanda, H.E. Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo has emphasized the need to overcome fragmentation that exists at various levels of climate change management.

He explained that in Africa there are many initiatives that are engaged in climate change matters, including the East African Community through the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, Inter Governmental Authority on Development, and the United Nations Environmental Programme. “There is need for synergistic interventions that optimize and ensure beneficial use of the available resources,” H.E. Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo added.

Speaking as Guest of Honor during the 3rd Nile Basin Development Forum in Kigali, Rwanda on 26th October, 2011 organized under the theme ‘Climate Change and its implications for Sustainable Development and Cooperation in the Nile Basin – Threats and Opportunities to Nile Basin Cooperation’ he said, “It is essential that policies, strategies, institutional and legal frameworks be developed, coordinated and harmonized at the global and regional level”.

Hon. Charity Kaluki Ngilu, Kenya’s Minister for Water and Irrigation and Chairperson of the Nile Council of Ministers in charge of Water Affairs, told participants that “the Nile Basin region is faced with a declining level of Lake Victoria. For us to guarantee water security for our citizens, I would encourage the Nile Basin Member States that are yet to sign the River Nile Cooperative Framework Agreement to do so.” She added that “Water security for Sudan and Egypt is not a matter for debate, but a right. To secure this right it is important the River Nile Cooperative Framework Agreement is ratified by all the Nile Basin States.”

Earlier, Dr. Wael Khairy, Executive Director of the Nile Basin Initiative, noted that achieving sustainable socio-economic development and management of the Nile Basin presents a great challenge, which calls for joint regional action as well as explicit political-will and financial commitment from all Nile Riparian States and development partners. He said the “Nile Basin can be resilient to climate change if, and only if, our Riparian States work together as one body”

The 3rd Nile Basin Development Forum was closed today 28th October, 2011 by the Host, Hon. Ambassador Stanislus Kamanzi, Minister of Natural Resources of the Republic of Rwanda.

He noted that participants have ably deliberated on the challenges, existing opportunities and the ever growing threats of climate change to development agendas, not only in NBI but in the whole of Africa.

“We received captivating key note speeches, deliberated on core issues and what can be done in Governance, Finance, Food and Energy Security in enabling us adapt to climate change”, he added.

Participants from the Nile Basin countries namely, Burundi, DR Congo Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, The Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda issued a ‘Kigali Declaration’ in which they called for cooperation among their respective countries in preserving and managing the Nile Basin environment by giving due attention to its water and land resources, wetlands and biodiversity and by addressing the impacts of climate change.

They also highlighted the need to support the empowerment of the Nile Basin Initiative to take more rigorous and effective steps towards implementing pertinent climate change adaptation measures, thereby contributing to the efficient water management and optimal use of the resources as well as poverty eradication leading to promotion of economic integration in the Nile Basin.

Participants further called for strengthening participatory and integrated approaches in planning and decision making, including the meaningful participation of the civil society and non-governmental organizations in our efforts on responding to climate change at national and regional levels.

During the Forum, NBI launched some of its key products relevant to the subject of climate change. These include the second release of the Nile-Decision Support System (Nile-DSS), which is a world class analytical tool for NBI Member States and NBI as an institution that supports rational decisions and promotes sustainable outcomes. It provides a trans-boundary framework for sharing knowledge, understanding river system behavior, as well as designing and evaluating alternative development scenarios, investment projects, and management strategies.

The first ever River Nile State of Basin report, which is currently under preparation, will be introduced. Among other things, this report provides access to accurate, credible and timely information to help in raising awareness and increasing understanding and appreciation about the natural environment, the people, communities and economic development of the basin.

The Nile Basin Sustainability Framework, a suite of policies, strategies and guidelines through which the NBI will ensure that its activities are sustainable. It will also be used ensure that the development and management of the Nile Basin water resources undertaken by NBI Member States with facilitation of the NBI are in accordance with the principles of integrated water resources.

The Nile Information System (Nile-IS), a web-based knowledge management tool that allows for easy storage, searching, organizing, retrieval, analyzing as well as disseminating and exchanging information collected from NBI programs and projects.

A number of FAO-Nile Information Products prepared between 1996 and 2008. These products are ‘policy neutral’ instruments for examining a linked future between the land and water in the Nile Basin– and exploring the issues related to the people that depend on the continued access to land and cycle of nutrients and water. They are tools for understanding the impacts of rising demand for food and water against a variable hydrological regime.

More than 200 participants from within and outside the Nile Basin countries, including Ministers in charge of Water Affairs and Members of Parliament in the Nile Basin countries, environmentalists, water managers, researchers, River Basin Organizations, International and Regional organizations, civil society, private sector, media, diplomatic missions and development partners attended the 3rd NBDF organized by the Nile Basin Initiative in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources of Rwanda.

Nile Basin meeting deferred to 17 December | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt

Photographed by AFP

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Egypt and Sudan have agreed to Kenya’s request to call off a regional water meeting to 17 December, according to Hisham Qandil, Egypt's Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation. Ministers from Nile Basin countries are slated to attend the event.

The meeting, to be hosted in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, was previously scheduled for 29 October.

Kenya's Ministry of Water and Irrigation said it requested postponement after Kenya's president tasked the minister with handling domestic concerns.

The meeting is supposed to tackle issues surrounding the framework agreement signed by six upstream countries for redistributing Nile water shares.

In April 2010, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda signed the framework agreement in Entebbe. They were joined by Burundi in March 2011.

Sudan and Egypt opposed the deal, as it endangers their historical water shares granted by a bilateral agreement in 1959.

The December meeting will seek to lessen the disagreements and facilitating collaboration among Nile Basin states.

Translated from the Arabic Edition

Need Sobriety: War talk over the Nile water should not replace Intensive Diplomacy | Tom Wilt News

The Nile water catchment has returned to haunt Eastern Africa nations against upper riparian states like Sudan and Egypt who have dismissed the treaty wholly. The simmering row over the Nile between the northern countries and those in the sub-Saharan escalated in 2004. The lower riparian states announced their withdrawal from the 1929 and 1952 Nile treaties and argued that they were colonies at the time the treaty was signed.

Tanzania announced plan to build 105-mile pipeline to draw Nile water to serve its people. Other states want too to generate hydropower and irrigation to mitigate persistent drought, which has left millions of their citizens starving.

When Egypt says of the Nile to be a National Security issue, at least going by the assertion in parliament by Egyptian Minister of Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Councils, Moufid Shehab, it could also apply to the opposed nations.

While the old Nile water Agreements has been criticized as non-binding, Egypt and Sudan continue to be irrational to the reasoning of other East Africa nations.

The earlier treaties guaranteed Egypt 55.5 per cent of lion’s share of the Nile. Tough talk buoyed by Egypt’s military dominance and its use of force had hushed previous tensions over the Nile waters.

In 2004, then Egyptian water minister, Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, described Kenya’s intention to withdraw from the agreement as an “act of war”. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former secretary-general of the UN predicted that the next war in the region would be over water.

Xinhua news reported a senior Egypt official saying the coming weeks are to see intensive diplomatic actions by Cairo to resolve the water dispute. Saying it was not the end of the game and the signing was a “wrong step”, already Egypt has dispatched a diplomatic ensemble and irrigation experts to Khartoum for what they termed as “…Consulting and sharing visions on the joint action plan for preserving the water quota of the two countries.”

Today all East Africa (EA) nations have signed a new agreement and effectively pulling out of early treaties. They have since moved on to gang considerable influence in terms of resources. Uganda has virgin deposits of crude oil. Tanzania is already at advanced stage in manufacturing gas and exporting. Kenya’s oil exploration has shown high chancing on oil and gas. If this is what power is, then what is it considering Kenya’s multi-covert corps that lie large. This could be the reason why the three EA states are diplomatically speaking more unanimously in the newfound framework under the East African Community- with an EastAfrican Standby Brigade. Contrasting its neighbors, Nairobi appears measured and manipulative but can be diplomatically tooled, and astute today than years ago.

However, it is critical in the next few days that the two fractious groups find a suitable way to channel their grievances and avoid confrontations that can be disastrous to either party. This could be so if Egypt is to be perceived as to ruse international donors and partners to stop the funding of upstream water projects. Understandably, Dr. Helmi Sharawi, an Egyptian expert in African affairs, has shown Egypt’s intent on the necessity of drawing local, Arab and African investments in the Nile Basin countries as to make the best use of the Nile water.

According to the Daily monitor, Dr Allam, the Commission’s Secretary General said that any unilateral agreement signed by the upstream Nile Basin countries is not binding to downstream countries, adding that Egypt and Sudan lacks legitimacy.

The bandying of words comes as a parallel source in Xinhua news noted, Egypt, which is almost entirely dependent on the waters of the Nile, warning that the new agreement lacks legitimacy, saying it “reflects only the views of the seven states”.

The new CFA has been signed to formally transform the Nile Basin Initiative to a Nile Basin Commission to look at how to utilize the Nile for all countries.

In Nairobi, signing the CFA treaty separately at a ceremony witnessed by the executive director of the Nile Basin Initiative Henriette Ndombe, Kenya Water and Irrigation Minister, Charity Ngilu supported the recent agreement indicating Kenya’s intention to utilize these waters. She invited Egypt and Sudan to join in the treaty in the spirit of cooperation based on “One Nile, One Basin and One Vision.”

The agreements and previous exchange notes between the nations is problematic because it gave Egypt exclusive property rights over the Nile waters with no obligations to the other riparian countries except Sudan. Egypt claims 65 per cent per year of Nile waters to which many studies already out are indicating that the current usage of the Nile is unsustainable. This is largely due to population growth and environmental degradation along Nile tributaries. This thrust has bolstered the opposed countries to the 1929 and 1952 Nile treaties. The recent signing in Entebbe has driven the confirmation home.

There are early studies that accommodate as efficient the Nile agreements citing the early principles of Coasian analysis and Posner’s assignment, that explain primarily on the economics of utility like markets, law and social cost. Nonetheless, their claim to protect Egypt’s monopoly has been contradicted by latter studies on the same issue.

Interestingly upper riparian countries have been consistently getting favorable views and validity from publicists upholding the sentiments on the binding Vienna Convention on laws and treaties.

The understanding has been that the new commission on the Nile will supposedly examine some critical aspects that beggars answers.

First, how property rights over the Nile water would be assigned and under what criteria. Alternatively, what legal rule should be applied to protect the assigned property rights? These two rules should go in tandem emphasizing on the economic equity model as opposed to competing vendetta. On this, all stakeholders need to engage to found a suitable standard in the management of the common Nile resources.

Water desalination revolutionised - The Egyptian Gazette

Water desalination revolutionised By Mohssen Arishie - The Egyptian Gazette Thursday, September 22, 2011 05:41:21 PM CAIRO - Egypt'’s scientists have developed new technology to reduce the cost of water desalination from LE10 (about $1.70) to LE4 per cubic metre.
The new technology will boost cultivation in Sinai and the Western Desert.
The chairman of the Holding Co. for Drinking water and Sanitation has confirmed that the new cheap technology will boost cultivation in Sinai and the Western Desert. General Sayyed Nasr told the press that we have a team of university professors and agricultural experts to thank for this breakthrough. It has also been disclosed that they are now looking at ways to reduce the cost of water desalination even further, to only LE2 per cubic metre. Nasr, who was an engineer in the Army, explained that the new technology mainly depends on solar cells. He is confident that Egyptian scientists will soon win international accolades for this. “The new technology will revolutionise this industry globally,” he said. “Agriculture in Egypt will also witness breathtaking changes and developments.” According to Gen. Nasr, the new water desalination technology will help irrigate millions of acres in the Western Desert and Sinai Peninsula, without having to use Nile water. Fortunately, the revelation of this new technology coincides with the intense talks the Egyptian Government has been engaged in with other Nile Basin states over river quotas. The issue of the Nile water developed into a huge headache under Hosni Mubarak's regime, which arrogantly mishandled suggestions by African countries to redistribute the water. Mubarak's outrageous water policies strained Cairo's relationship with Ethiopia, after the latter revealed a plan to construct a giant dam. The Egyptian nation voiced deep concern, after cynically miscalculated reports warned that Ethiopia's water projects would hinder the flow of river water to Egypt. Egyptians were also warned that Ethiopia's proposed 'Millennium Dam' would drastically reduce Egypt's quota, leaving everyone thirsty and causing our crops to wither. Now that Mubarak's regime has gone, the situation is far less tense. During his recent visit to Cairo, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi dispelled Egyptians' fears about their water quota, while he and his Egyptian counterpart witnessed the signing of several joint co-operation agreements.

PM Meles Zenawi wants to sale water for the developments of his people. - YouTube

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Ethiopia, Egypt agree to hold tripartite meeting on Nile | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt

Photographed by other

Egypt and Ethiopia agreed on Thursday to hold a meeting of its tripartite committee on the Nile, which also includes Sudan, to assess the potential effects of Ethiopia's building what it is calling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the river. The exact date of the meeting will be determined after Addis Ababa and Khartoum review the terms of the committee's purview.

The announcement came at a press conference held by Egypt's Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Hesham Mohamed Qandil and his Ethiopian counterpart, Almayho Tigno, Thursday evening at the Water Resources and Irrigation Ministry headquarters.

The ministers said they were waiting for Sudan's final reply to setting the committee's exact responsibilities. The committee will set mechanisms for future cooperation between the three countries in developing the Blue Nile.

They stressed that they did not discuss the Nile Basin Initiative, the consequences of which are scheduled to be discussed at a conference of energy ministers of Nile Basin countries in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, at the end of October.

Qandil said the tripartite committee will be responsible for fostering areas of cooperation in water resource management and exchanging technical expertise, as well as developing a memorandum of understanding to share expertise between Egypt and Ethiopia's human resource ministries.

Tigno stressed that according to studies carried out by Ethiopian experts, the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile will not negatively affect either country's share of water.

He added that the dam will bring economic returns to Egypt and Sudan, reduce the siltation that threatens the Sudanese and Egyptian dams, control flooding, and regulate the flow of water to Egypt and Sudan throughout the year, as per the tripartite committee's tentative agreement.

The Addis Ababa government believes that Egypt and Sudan are capable of establishing regional economic projects to achieve sustainable development for their people, Tigno said, adding that Ethiopia can export the electricity generated from the dam to both Egypt and Sudan, like it now does to Djibouti.

The Ethiopian minister said his country has agreed to form a committee comprised of experts from all three countries in order to confirm these claims and continue cooperation between the countries.

In the future, energy from the dam can be exported to Kenya, Rwanda, and even South Africa, he added.

The Ethiopian minister denied rumors that the Nile water would be transferred to Israel, saying that it would be technically impossible to do so considering his country's geographic location.

Qandil said Egypt would not allow Nile water to be transferred to Israel through the Egypt-Israel border because it is currently banned by international law, emphasizing that Egypt rejects the idea of transferring water out of the Nile Basin. He noted that the government of Addis Ababa has the right to carry out development projects so long as it respects international law.

Translated from the Arabic Edition

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