Four east African countries signed a new deal creating a permanent commission to manage the River Nile’s waters on Friday, putting them on a collision course with Egypt and Sudan.
Stretching more than 6,600km from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean, the Nile is a vital water and energy source for the nine countries through which it flows.
The original colonial-era agreement gives Cairo the power to veto dams and other water projects in upstream countries.
Those states, desperate for development and access to more water to support economic growth levels, say that is unjust.
Despite strong opposition from their northern neighbors, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia signed the agreement, while Kenya, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were expected to sign within the 12 months allowed by the accord.
“We’ve been negotiating the text we’ve just signed for more than 10 years. If we don’t sign today I assure you that we’ll go another 10 years without having reached an agreement,” Rwandan Minister for Water and the Environment Stanislus Kamanzi said.
“The essence of our getting together is about moving quickly … it’s regrettable that Egypt and Sudan haven’t been able to join us,” Kamanzi said.
Under the original pact Egypt, which faces possible water shortages by 2017, is entitled to 55.5 billion cubic meters a year, the lion’s share of the Nile’s total flow of about 84 billion cubic meters.
Egypt is the Arab world’s most populous nation, where climate change threatens a fragile farm sector and population growth may outstrip water resources as early as 2017.
It fears that if it loses its ability to veto projects in upper basin states then the water flows it receives could be dramatically reduced.
Egyptian Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Mohamed Nasreddin Allam said Egypt said it would take all legal and diplomatic measures necessary to maintain its water rights.
“Any unilateral agreement signed by the upstream Nile Basin countries is not abiding to downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, and lacks legitimacy,” Allam said.
The upstream countries said that the commission would be based in the Ugandan town of Entebbe on the shores of Lake Victoria.
It will have the power to veto energy and irrigation projects in signatory states or recommend changes.
“The resources of River Nile is for all countries not for some or a few countries,” Ethiopian Minister for Water Resources Asfaw Dingamo said.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
RSS