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East Africa: The Nile, the source of all the greeds

By on May 20, 2010
Egypt has reacted in an “epidermal” way to the signature on Friday by four waterside countries (Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania) of a new one-sided agreement of sharing waters of the river.  Kenya has joined the four countries and signed the new agreement. Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo have promised to sign within the next year.

This new agreement has sparked sharp criticism from Egypt, which is vowing to take legal action to maintain its current water rights. However, the Egyptian strategy of blocking is not bearable any more. It has been over ten years since the countries upstream to the river, in particular Ethiopia and Kenya, calling in vain for a revision of the Treaty of sharing the Nile waters.
For Egypt, it is a vital question: 95 % of its water resources result from the Nile and the experts already fear the beginning of shortage by around ten years. On the contrary, as it is asserted in Cairo, the Central African countries receiving heavy rains, much of which is lost in unexploited swamps.
The new agreement was immediately qualified «as illegal» by Egypt, which launched a campaign of lobbying with countries susceptible to finance the construction of dams. Ethiopia intends to build about forty to irrigate new farmlands and produce some electricity. “The current sharing is so favourable to Egypt and it has no other best choice, but to   spare time, several European diplomats said in Cairo.
Egypt has nevertheless some reasons for worrying. Besides the unpredictable attitude of China, more and more present in Africa, it also suspects Israel, which already finances hydraulic projects in Ethiopia and in Uganda, to try to destabilise it.

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