Talk over the Nile dispute

Another round of talks, this time in Washington, DC, failed to resolve the dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt over River Nile. Indeed, Ethiopia did not even send a delegation to the Donald Trump-sponsored talks that were also attended by Sudan and the World Bank.

Not surprisingly, Ethiopia has rejected any resolutions of the US talks, much to the chagrin of Egypt.

Any dispute on the Nile has a bearing on East Africa. The river comes out of Lake Victoria and, therefore, the region has an interest in any resolution about it.

Dispute over the river has simmered for generations, but the latest round revolves around the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile, in the Benishangul-Gumuz region.

Egypt, the giant north African desert state, sits at the tail end of the Nile, which is its bloodline. It was against such background that in 2015 Cairo penned the new Nile agreement with Ethiopia, essentially overriding the 1929 Anglo-Egyptian treaty that gave Egypt a rather disproportionate control over the river.

The 1929 deal granted Egypt at least 48 billion cubic metres and Sudan four billion m3 of the Nile’s estimated 84 billion m3 of water a year. Egypt was also given powers to approve any construction projects on the Nile and its tributaries.

That was enhanced in 1959 between Egypt and Sudan, raising the annual allocation to 55.5 billion m3 and 18.5 billion m3, respectively, but making no proviso for the needs of the upstream states.

Ethiopia is uncompromising on GERD, arguing that at worst, it could only delay but not block water from reaching Egypt, but the latter is not convinced. Negotiation would be best way out to ensure, at the very least, equitable distribution of the Nile waters with mutual respect for the sovereignty of all stakeholder states.