Jordan Environment Watch : A New Nile Accord to be signed soon?

The Rwandan news agency has posted a news item stating that a new Nile River accord will be signed as early as the end of September or the begenning of October to replace the current accord that dates back to 1929. The report says that initial opposition by both Egypt and Sudan was eased with new clauses that provide security for both countries.

Here is the complete text of the news feature:

A new treaty on equitable use of the Nile waters by the riparian states could be signed soon to replace the 1929 Treaty, Kenyan Officials have said, RNA News Desk has established.

Environment and Natural Resources Permanent Secretary (PS), Prof George Krhoda, on Thursday said the member countries were likely to sign the new treaty in September or early October. The agreement is known as the Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework (NRBCF).

“The treaty is based on the Lake Victoria protocol and has brought Sudan and Egypt on board after the introduction of a water security guarantee clause,” The East African Standard quotes Prof. Krhoda to have said.

The PS was addressing a workshop for the Nile Basin Discourse and Kenya Nile Discourse Forum at Sunset Hotel in Kisumu.

The new agreement is expected to replace the contentious 1929 Nile Treaty between Egypt and Britain. Egypt and Sudan, which have largely desert land, were initially opposed to the treaty, fearing that would cut them off from the Nile waters.

Prof. Krhoda said the treaty’s strength lay in five main articles, but which generated heated debate in previous negotiations. These include article 4, which is on equitable and reasonable use of the Nile waters, Article 5 (prevention of harm to the waters), Article 6 (protection and conservation of the basin and its ecosystem) and Article 8 (prior informed consent before using the waters).

Krhoda said the new document proposed relaxed wording to make it more agreeable to all members.

“During the last negotiations in Bujumbura, Burundi, some countries did not want the use of ‘River Basin’, preferring River System,” he said.

In the new document, said Krhoda, the prior informed consent clause had been amended after Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo pushed for its alteration to “information concerning planned measures”.

The new wording puts a check on the 1929 treaty, which required the riparian states to seek permission before using the Nile waters. The document further provides for establishment of a Nile Basin Commission, with its headquarters in Entebbe, Uganda, as agreed in the last negotiations.

The institution would enforce the NRBCF and act as a clearing house. He said “The Commission would also be in charge of projects and programmes initiated in the lake basin”.

The PS said the document would be presented to the Nile Commission on Water before being handed over to the Government for scrutiny and signing. It will then be ratified by the other eight riparian states.

The states are Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, DRC, Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Burundi. Eritrea appears as an observer