LIFEBLOOD: Millions rely on the Nile's water (XINHUA)

This year has been a nightmare for the Egyptian Government after downstream countries in Africa's Nile basin challenged Egypt's long-time right of having the lion's share of the Nile's water, and even disregarding Cairo's veto on that score.

At the beginning of 2010, Egypt woke up to a new pact agreed by Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania to having a greater share of the Nile's water. The agreement was hammered out after Egypt and Sudan refused to sign on the grounds that it violates the previous 1929 agreement.

Agreements inked in 1929 and 1959 stipulate that none of the upstream states can obstruct the flow of the Nile water in a way that could decrease Egypt and Sudan's share without Cairo's permission.

Colonial treaty

In 1929, Britain, as the colonial power, signed a deal in the name of its colonies, giving Egypt 55.5 billion cubic meters of the Nile's total flow of 84 billion cubic meters, as well as the veto power over its use.

A month before signing the new framework agreement, all African countries concerned met in Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh, but all negotiations between the states of the Nile Basin Initiative failed to reach a unanimous agreement.

During the conference, the Nile source countries demanded that amendments must be made to prior agreements governing the division of water between the Nile basin countries on the basis that these agreements were signed during the age of colonialism and as a result, they are not binding.

However Sudan and Egypt were sticking to historical rights to the Nile water and proposed establishing a commission for the 10 Nile basin countries.

With the absence of the Egyptian influence in upstream countries, let alone Africa, coupled with the climate change and overpopulation, upstream and downstream countries' need for a greater share of the Nile water has become indispensable.

"Ours is one of the most vulnerable countries, 80 percent of our agriculture relies on rain-fed irrigation. We can no longer predict that we will receive regular rainfall, so we can't predict our crop production," said Stanislas Kamanzi, Rwanda's Minister for Environment and Lands.

"We need to use the resources in our waterways and lakes for irrigation."

Self determination

Recently, Nile basin countries have grown more vocal in their demands for a greater share of the water and an end to Egypt's veto, which includes stopping hydroelectric and irrigation projects that might disrupt the river's flow.

The crisis was at its peak when Ethiopia announced the inauguration of hydroelectric dams on the Nile including Tana Beles and Tekeze Dams, despite statements by Ethiopian officials that these dams will not reduce any of Egypt's water share. But the Egyptian Government considers that these dams will obstruct the flow of the Nile, which could be catastrophic for Egypt as a downstream country as it has no other source for drinking or farmland irrigation.

Downstream countries had not been able to build these dams without assistance from China, which has huge investments in Africa, even some of the world's poorest nations. For example, last year a Chinese company completed Tekeze Dam on the Nile in western Ethiopia, which is now the largest dam in Africa.

"The China factor is one of the most worrisome in the new debates over water in Africa," Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute, a California-based environmental and economic research center, told The Times newspaper on June 4, 2010. "They are pursuing unilateral water development projects that are going to affect downstream countries and regional politics."

Egypt's urgent need for the Nile water, its only source of water, has also become a matter of life or death as the population is on the rise, and 95 percent of its water supplies come from the world's longest river. Egyptian media reported that farmers irrigate their land with untreated sewage water due to the shortage of the sweet water.

In its attempt to solve the crisis, the Egyptian Government, amid harsh criticisms at home, adopted a stick-and-carrot approach.

Legal action

The Egyptian Government has threatened to take a legal action against the upstream countries as international law is in its favor. Meanwhile, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit described the crisis as a "red line" and a matter of "national security." The Egyptian Government, according to Egypt-based Al-Masry Al-youm newspaper, is currently preparing an action plan to present to the upstream states, which will include doubling the budget of the Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa to $17.5 million. The fund finances development projects, training programs and the digging of wells in upstream Nile Basin Initiative states.

The Egyptian ministries of foreign affairs, irrigation and foreign cooperation have been tasked with coordinating implementation of the plan.

Attitudes must change

Editor of Cairo-based Weg-hat Nazr magazine Ayman Al-Sayyad told ChinAfrica that Egypt now is not speaking the same language with Africa, for the following reasons.

"First, we are still living in the past, thinking that Egypt is still the major power in the area, it is actually not, and the problem is we deal with the upstream countries in the light of our past achievements in Africa. For example, during the 1960s, we were able to deal with these countries, because we were leading the revolutionary movements in the area against the imperial occupation.

"Second, we turn a blind eye to the increasingly political and geopolitical transformations in the upstream countries, so that in the end we deny their interests as countries sharing with us the most important source of water.

"Third, Egyptians rely on the Nile water as the only source of irrigation. We use it for drinking, land cultivation and generating electricity, so a vital source that requires a long-term strategy for ensuring the endless flow of water.

"So the problem is not building one dam or some dams. The real problem is what will happen in the future if we continue dealing with this issue in the same invalid ways," said Al-Sayyad.

(Reporting from Egypt)