by Eze Eluchie
In the course of a working visit to Uganda, I was opportune to lodge at a relatively luxurious river-side hotel in Jinja, with well maintained flora and which had an exhilarating view of the surrounding plains.
The tourist that I am, I took off time out of technical discourse on how to rid the African continent of the menace of ‘tobacco smoke’ which had been my primary reason for visiting Uganda, to interact with the locals and appreciate more of their lives and the beautiful environment.
As I strolled towards the bank of the fast flowing water which bordered the southern flank of my hotel, my impromptu tour guide, upon an inquiry, informed me that the river we were approaching was River Nile. I was astounded. Here I was approaching the almighty Nile, and I hadn’t really realized how close I was to living history – that certainly was how I considered the Nile. I was further informed that indeed the source of the Nile was not too far away from my Hotel.
Innocuously, I inquired from my guide how come that their governments did not tap from the waters of the Nile to provide electricity and irrigation for several of the browned-out communities which dotted the area around Jinja. “Oga-man’, replied my guide, calling me by a prefix popularized by Nigerian ‘Nollywood’ movies by which most people in Africa address Nigerian expatriates, ‘our Government has to get approval from Egypt before we can fetch a bucket of water from the river we are now approaching’!
The consternation I felt was palpable.
I have since then deeply acquainted myself with a most partial international instrument of doubtful legality which incredulously denies Eastern African countries from which the Nile originates and traverses, rights to use the waters of the Nile. The so-called ‘Nile Water Agreement of 1929’ entered into by Britain and Egypt (East African countries had no part in this debacle) guarantees that a minimum of two-thirds (66%) of the waters of the Nile would be reserved for Egypt and that Egypt had the right to ‘veto’ any uses Eastern African countries tried to put the waters of the Nile River to. At first, the contents of the Nile River Agreement appears to be a distasteful joke – until it gradually sinks in that this obnoxious agreement has been implemented for close to a century with disastrous consequences for the peoples residing along the Nile basin in East Africa.
To compound the situation for the Eastern African countries, donor agencies and international financial institutions skillfully ensure the enforcement of the Nile River Agreement by not only not granting facilities geared towards utilization of the Nile River resources by East African countries but also tying multi-lateral agreements to the enforcement of the 1929 Treaty.
What could have motivated such clearly skewed agreements between Britain and Egypt in 1929? Was the lives of the Africans who inhabit East Africa considered less worthy of benefiting from the Nile (and being preserved and protected) than the lives of the Egyptians?
Could access to the waters of the Nile have prevented the Ethiopian Famine of 1983 – 1985 which resulted in the deaths of over 500,000 people? Could access to the waters of the Nile have contributed to the development of the moribund economies of East African countries?
How would the peoples of Europe have reacted if an agreement in the style of The Nile Agreement of 1929 existed with regards to the waters of the Danube River – reserving the bulk of the waters thereof for Romania and Ukraine, from whence the river empties into the sea? or the peoples of West African with regards to the waters of the Niger River – reserving the bulk of the waters for Nigeria?
It is in the light of the foregoing that efforts by Ethiopian authorities to build a hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile and the Governments of Tanzania and Uganda at asserting their sovereignty and debunking a most ridiculous outdated and untenable agreement entered into between Britain and Egypt deserves support from the rest of humanity.
Egypt should be encouraged to endorse the Nile River Co-operative Framework Agreement which has already been adopted by other source countries of the Nile – Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and now Ethiopia, and refrain from a confrontational posture and threats of instigation of violence as recently documented its State authorities.
The Nile should be for the benefit of all the peoples along its path.
NB: Video of an unbelievably revealingl Egyptian Cabinet meeting discussing possible clandestine actions against Ethiopia for daring to access the waters of the Nile.
Picture: The Nile River as it snakes through National Park Safari Reserve, Uganda.
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