![]() Egypt also only gets “a few millimeters of rain per year,” he says. However, unlike the other countries that share the Nile, Egypt has only one river, says El-Bahrawy, and as the most downstream nation, it is most vulnerable to development upstream. In 1999, the Nile River Basin States started negotiations to design a legal framework that would provide for a fairer allocation of the Nile’s waters, but Egypt and Sudan would not compromise on the “absolute protection of their prior rights” and no consensus was reached, says Mbaku. Upstream countries, including Ethiopia, maintain that “they are not bound by these agreements, because they were never parties to them,” Mbaku says. “The Nile River Basin’s upstream riparian states argue that the Nile Waters Agreements are unfair, inequitable and unsustainable,” says Mbaku. DeAgostini/Getty ImagesĮgypt not only needs the Nile waters, it believes it has a legal and historical right to them. The Blue Nile Falls - located near the river's source, Lake Tana in Ethiopia. “It is generally believed that Egypt received such favorable terms (during colonial times) … because the country was very important to the United Kingdom’s agricultural interests, particularly its cotton fields,” says John Mukum Mbaku, professor of economics at Weber State University in Utah and co-author of “Governing the Nile River Basin.” ![]() What’s more, the agreements granted Egypt veto power over construction projects on the Nile River and its tributaries anywhere upstream. The Nile Waters Agreements allocated no water to Ethiopia – even though it is home to a major source – or the other eight countries of the Nile Basin, whose rivers feed into Lake Victoria and contribute to the White Nile. Collectively known as the Nile Waters Agreements, the treaties grant 18.5 billion cubic meters of water a year to Sudan and 55.5 billion cubic meters to Egypt. ![]() Egypt’s claim on the Nile’s waters has, however, been enshrined in law for nearly 90 years, in the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1929, signed between Egypt and Great Britain, and the 1959 Bilateral Agreement between Egypt and Sudan. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |