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Nile basin countries form commissionAddis Ababa, Ethiopia, 04/01 - Seeking to firm up a cooperative framework for development projects using water from the Nile River basin, nine riparian countries in eastern Africa Friday agreed to set up a permanent commission that will coordinate their activities. The Nile River Basin Commission, which will act as an executive body on behalf of Member States, will be based in Kampala, Uganda, the Nile Council of Ministers decided. Concluding a two-day extraordinary meeting here, the ministers also underlined cooperation as a key and guiding factor in resolving any contentious issue on the use of transboundary water resource. Water ministers of Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Republic of Congo, Sudan and Tanzania expressed satisfaction that significant progress has been made by reaching the Nile River Basin Agreement after years of difficult negotiations. "The Nile Basin Initiative has come a long way in building confidence and creating mutual trust among the riparian countries," said Ethiopia`s Minister of Water Resources, Assfaw Dingamo. Through the initiative, riparian countries hope to work closely together on shared vision projects at the Basin level. Meanwhile, Tanzania`s Water Minister Stephen Wassira told PANA that the 1929 colonial pact between the United Kingdom and Egypt on the use of the water from the Nile basin by other riparian countries was obsolete. "We were not part of that deal because when it was concluded our countries were colonies. We did not exist as independent nations by then," he said. Any issue pertaining to the use of the Nile including lakes of the riparian countries, Wassira explained, would from now be based on the new agreement. Eritrea was the only Nile riparian country not represented at the Council`s meeting, but the door was open for it to accede to the agreement if authorities in Asmara so decided. Go to Source of article |