Recent regional talks about a new Cooperative Framework Agreement for sharing the waters of the Nile River Basin have once again been stalled, said Ethiopia's state minister for government communications, Shimelis Kemal.
However, Kemal told reporters that Ethiopia, Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda will continue with the new proposal, which changes a 1929 agreement which gives Egypt 87 percent of the flow in the basin.
Nine countries have been working on a Cooperation Framework Agreement that would enable them to use the Nile waters fairly. Seven of them have agreed on the new document. But the two that hold powers inherited from colonial days, Sudan and Egypt, don't like the agreement, said Shimelis.
So Egypt, whose powers derive from the agreement made with British colonial negotiators, hinders other Nile basin countries from using the Nile water resource. Egypt continues to reject new initiatives because they don't honor Egypt's historic position. Egypt also wants to have veto power over all agreements, Kemal said.
Listen to the report.
