Risdel Kasasira
5 November 2009
The Egyptian government yesterday said it was ready to cooperate with other eight countries under Nile Basin to resolve their disagreements on the usage and access of River Nile water.
The visiting Egyptian Assistant Minister for Foreign and African Affairs, Mona Omar, told journalists in Kampala yesterday that her country has been "unfairly" blamed for blocking efforts to establish a permanent River-Basin Commission that would oversee the implementation of development projects on the Nile.
Six states under Nile Basin have been pushing for the establishment of the commission that would give equal powers to all member-states on its access and usage, rather than 1929 agreement which gives Egypt veto powers on the water-usage of the longest river in Africa.
However Egypt and Sudan, the countries that depend almost totally on river, have objected the amendment saying the establishment of the commission would endanger their people.
Ms Omar said: "I would like to say that there is no dispute. We have a framework that guides us. But there are only three points which we disagree on. But it's not a dispute. We cannot have control over the Nile," she said.
The Nile basin countries include; Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, DR Congo, Sudan and Egypt.
The amendment to the 1929 agreement was supposed to be passed in September 2008. They were, however, delayed because of these disagreements before it was pushed to June this year.
Ms Omar said millions of people would die if the flow of R. Nile is tampered with. "Millions of Egyptians depend on the Nile," she said.
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