By Ater Yuot R. Amogpai
Four Nile water agreements were signed between Britain, Italy, and France starting from 1891 to 1925 on how to deal with Nile water affairs. Finally, Britain managed to exclude the rest of the two colonial powers from east Africa and Nile water affairs.
The first Nile water agreement
involved Egypt as the Nile basin country signed in 1929. In this agreement, the
annual Nile water flow of 84 billion cubic meters divided between Egypt 48
billion cubic meters and Sudan 4 billion cubic meters.
In 1959 Agreement signed between
Egypt and Sudan recalculated the 1929 agreement on Nile water. For instance,
55.5 billion cubic meters for Egypt and 18.5 billion cubic meters to Sudan. The
agreement allowed Egypt to build the High Aswan Dam and Sudan to build Roseires
Dam.
The Aswan Dam started in 1960 and
finished in 1971 while, Roseires Dam began its construction in 1961 and
completed by 1966. The agreements, 1929 and 1959, complicated the usage of the
Nile water by riparian states. However, most of the nation's states were not
independent then; therefore, they are not bound by these agreements after
independence.
In 1999, the Nile Basin Initiative
was established to include ten (10) countries, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda,
Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan,
and Egypt Eritrea as an observer. This initiative's main objective is "to
achieve sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable
utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources."
Since the 1959 agreement, Egypt
keeps trying to increase its share from Nile water through Sudan. After Addis
Ababa Agreement signed between the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement and the
government of Sudan in March 1972, Egypt managed to convince Sudan's government
to start Nile water projects in the current state of South Sudan.
In 1976, the Jonglei Canal project
initiated to decrease the White Nile's loss while it passes through the Sudd
swamps in the south of Sudan. The length of the Canal was 360 km and could
secure an annual flow of water of around 4.7 billion cubic meters to Egypt.
Sudd is Africa's largest wetland and one of the most extensive tropical
wetlands in the world. The International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) identified the Sudd as a globally key, unrepresented ecological system.
In 1983, one of the reasons why the
SPLA/M revolted was the Jonglei Canal project. The founder of the SPLA/M, Dr.
John Garnag de Mabior, did his doctoral thesis titled "Identifying,
selecting, and implementing rural development strategies for socio-economic
development in the Jonglei Projects Area, Southern, Region, Sudan" in 1981.
One of his most definite recommendations in this project was that it could be
an environmental disaster.
By 1984, the Canal's digging had
stopped when fighting erupted between the SPLA/M and Sudan's government. The
construction of the Jonglei Canal started in 1978, and only 10 km remains to
finish. And this ended Egyptian efforts in the 20th century to increase its
share of Nile water from South Sudan.
The Canal project's main objective
was not only to decrease the loss of water in the Sudd but also to collect the
water from Nile tributaries and directed into the Canal towards Egypt. The
result is the loss of the Sudd conservation site and the people's lives in the
area.
In 2011, South Sudan got its
independence and became a sovereign country and a member of the Nile basin
countries. Thus, Egypt would reconsider its role to support its previous
projects to increase its water share. Egypt is badly planning to expand its
water share through the Jonglei Canal and cleaning the Nile tributaries basins
projects in South Sudan.
Egypt was one of the countries to quickly recognize the state of South Sudan and immediately established diplomatic ties. Further, Egypt offered diesel generators to the government of southern Sudan before independence to start the construction of power plants throughout the country. Also, Egypt gives scholarships for South Sudanese students at her universities every year. And other several supports in the form of training for government officials, medical aids, humanitarian aid, and others. Al these gifts are win to win cooperation between Egypt and South Sudan, probably for the exchange of Nile water projects.
Currently, South Sudan is busy with
its internal issues, and the Jonglei Canal project is not one of a country's
priorities. Electricity projects will start anytime from now by initiating
dams' projects, mainly in Nimule and elsewhere. South Sudan will expect Egypt
not to oppose the construction of dams' projects in the country.
