Kampala — Uganda is holding negotiations with other Nile Basin states for a new treaty to regulate the utilisation of the River Nile waters, state minister for water Maria Mutagamba said yesterday, reports Jude Luggya.

Mutagamba told the parliamentary committee on natural resources that the negotiations, set for December in Adis-Ababa Ethiopia, would be influenced by only the Nile basin member states not by any other institution such as the World bank.

The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is supported by a $140m World bank grant.

"The NBI is sponsoring only two delegates. It's our responsibility to sponsor more delegates to be able to get a favourable legal framework to govern all countries in the Nile basin," Mutagamba said.

The motion moved by Amon Muzoora (Rwampara) is seeking a pronouncement that Uganda is not bound by any pre-colonial agreement on the Nile, particularly the 1929 and the 1953 agreements on the Owen falls dam. It also wants Sudan and Egypt to compensate Uganda for the heavy investment on the dam.

It also raises issues such as the unfavourable terms for Uganda in the Nile basin agreements with Sudan and Egypt made by the colonial masters, the breach of compensation by Egypt, the lack of a binding effect of agreements and the need for re-negotiations between the affected independent states.

Mutagamba said there was no international customary law that stopped Uganda from utilising the waters of the Nile.

The committee had earlier questioned why Uganda was still following the unfair pre-independence agreements.