River Nile

There is a standoff regarding who should and who should not use the waters of River Nile. Egypt and Sudan want the colonial agreement over the use of the Nile water to continue applying in their favour. This infamous treaty denies upstream countries the right of using the Nile waters as pleased. 

Recently, Egypt and Sudan boycotted signing the Nile basin treaty. They want a lion's share in the Nile business! Do they know where the Nile originates? Isn’t this provocation? Why do they want water to feed their people as upstream countries starve theirs? Is it  the Arab 'better than thou' or 'the blacks are slaves' mentality ? 

Common sense must prevail. It is bulimia for the duo to base their claims on a British-Egypt pact entered at the high noon of colonialism. How can a thief enter agreement with any party over a stolen item? This stinking agreement stipulates that Egypt should have an upper hand with regards to the matters of the Nile even though she does not own the source of River Nile! The duo wants to see Article 14 (b) of the proposed Co-operative Framework Agreement (CFA) which relates to historical water rights and uses apply! What hogwash! 

“Egypt’s historic rights to River Nile waters are a matter of life and death. We will not compromise them,” Moufid Shehab, minister of legal and assembly affairs, told parliament after the talks. This is provocative and laughable. Suppose the Nubians lay claim on owning and occupying Egypt just because history has it: Egypt and her civilization are theirs, what would Egypt do?  

“We will not sign on to any agreement that does not clearly state and acknowledge our historical rights,” Egyptian Water Minister Mohamed Nasreddin Allam said after the meeting. Is this 1929 deal that gives Egypt 55.5 billion cubic metres a year (the biggest share of a flow of some 84 billion cubic metres) but does not consider the fact that Ethiopia produces more than 80% of the water Egypt is hollering about a historic right or historic lie? 

Egypt threatens military action against those who deny it the so called “historic right.” Egypt should stop self deception and mend fences. For long, Cairo has taken the Nile waters as a natural right, ignored upstream countries who are its strategic partners and is investing heavily in the Middle East. Egypt also alleges that Israel is behind all this misunderstanding regarding Nile waters!   

Egyptian authorities are trying to create an enemy in order to get away with it. They don’t want to face reality.