Regional ministers to discuss Nile water issues

Jul 12, 2016

The water ministers are due to meet in Kampala later this week.

PIC: Water and environment minister Sam Cheptoris (left) and Nile Basin Initiative executive director John Rao Nyaoro addressed a press conference over the upcoming meeting of regional water ministers in Kampala. (Credit: Nancy Nanyonga)

KAMPALA - Ministers in charge of water affairs from the ten Nile Basin member states will be in Uganda to discuss a number of areas concerning the Nile Water Basin issues including how to strengthen cooperation on managing and developing the shared water resources.

The 24th annual Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-COM) meeting to will take place on Thursday and will be attended by member states including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Egypt and Kenya.

Others are Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and host Uganda.

Newly-appointed minister of water and environment, Sam Cheptoris told a press conference in Kampala that one of the key issues to discuss is financial sustainability to enable smooth implementation of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and meet core operational costs.  

He said The Nile continues to be an essential fountain of life for the Nile Basin citizens and therefore its conservation needs a win-win outcome.

"We have got a number of projects which we want to implement as member states and it is through such meeting that we can discuss best how to solicit for funds and implement them.

"The meeting will also devise means on how to strengthen the cooperation among member states and also attract others to join and sign the cooperation agreement," said the minister.

Other areas to discussed during the meeting are how to expedite the implementation of already-prepared investments projects worth more than US$6billon (approximately sh19trillion).

"The projects aim to increase food, energy and water security so as to improve livelihoods of more than 400 millon Nile Basin citizens," said Cheptoris.

He further pointed out that 99.5% of Uganda's population live in the Nile Basin and will benefit from these projects once implemented.

Meanwhile, the executive director of NBI, Dr. John Rao Nyaora said that during the meeting, they want to re-engage Egypt which has on several occasions declined to be part of the cooperation.

Egypt refused to sign the cooperation agreement on grounds that it has no other water resource except River Nile.

 It contends that it depends on the Nile 96% as its source of water and signing the agreement would only take effect if a minimum water requirement is guaranteed.

"Engaging and bringing back Egypt will ensure that there is a fully-constituted basin wide platform for all the Nile Basin states to dialogue on the progress of implementation of programs, projects, share the challenges, and seek guidance on key strategic issues," said Nyaora.

 In an effort to deal with the unequal water distribution, the Nile Water Basin agreement was set up in 1999 by nine of the countries that share the Nile, including Egypt and Sudan.

In 2010, Egypt and Sudan froze their participation in NBI activities following the signing of the Cooperative Framework Agreement, which calls for the equitable use of the Nile waters. Sudan resumed participation in 2013, but Egypt has not yet.

 To further combat the monopoly on the water guaranteed by colonial treaties, a new agreement was drawn out in 2010, which Egypt and Sudan have rejected.

During this week's meeting, Uganda's water minister will also assume leadership as chairman of the Nile-COM, taking over from Tanzania's water and irrigation minister, Eng. Gerson Lwenge.

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