Calming the Waters: The East African Community and Conflict over the Nile Resources

Abstract

Control of the waters of the Nile Basin has long been contested among the ten African riparian states that sit within the wider catchment area. In colonial times, use of the Nile was regulated by treaties promulgated and supported under British rule. These agreements favoured Egyptian and, to a lesser extent, Sudanese primacy in controlling the great river. This situation began to be challenged in the 1960s with the end of colonial rule in the region, and these challenges have now again been renewed in recent years with the revival of the East African Community. The members of the EAC, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, have a common interest in facilitating the economic development of the Lake Victoria Basin, and by extension this gives them an incentive to tackle the long-standing issues over the regulatory devices governing use of the Nile waters. This article reviews the background to the conflict over the Nile waters and describes the activities of the revived EAC to demonstrate the ways in which this regional organization has, since 1999, elaborated new policies and structures to strengthen and sustain the Nile Basin Initiative and the Nile Basin River Commission.

Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to the African Institute of South Africa (AISA), particularly Professor Korwa Adar, for kind support during research towards the production of this article.

Notes

1. This characterization was made by Tesfaye Tafesse, Nile Question.

2. Raphaeli, ‘Rising Tensions’.

3. Wright, Conflict on the Nile, 44; Tesfaye Tafesse, Nile Question, 59.

4. Mulama, ‘Calmer Waters’.

5. Thomson, ‘Ex-UN Chief Warns of Water Wars’.

6. Quoted in Wolf, ‘Water and Human Security’.

7. Westing (ed.), Global Resources and International Conflict.

8. Homer-Dixon, ‘Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict’.

9. Wolf, ‘Water and Human Security’.

10. BBC, ‘Africa's Potential Water Wars’, BBC News, 11 October 1999.

11. Hobbs, ‘Do “Water Wars” still Loom in Africa?’

12. Halford, ‘The Suez Canal’, 101.

13. Majyambere, ‘NBI Can Promote Regional Cooperation’.

14. Tafesse, Nile Question, 23–28.

15. Tafesse, Nile Question, 74

16. Godana, Africa's Shared Water Resources, 106–117.

17. Tafesse, Nile Question, 75.

18. Tafesse, Nile Question, 74–75.

19. Despite twelve bilateral Nile Water agreements that have been signed, these have failed to provide a binding and inclusive international framework. These include: the Protocol between Britain and Italy in 1891; Treaty between Britain and Ethiopia in 1902; Agreement between Britain and Congo in 1906 (Modifying the Agreement of Brussels signed in 1894); Agreement between Britain, Italy and Ethiopia in 1906; Exchange of notes between Britain and Italy in 1925; Nile water agreement in 1929; Convention between Britain and Belgium in 1934; Exchange of memoranda between Egypt and Great Britain (on behalf of Uganda) in 1949–1953; Egypt and the Sudan Nile Agreement in 1959; Exchange of memoranda between Egypt and Uganda in 1991; Framework for General Cooperation between Egypt and Ethiopia in 1993; and Agreement between Egypt and Uganda for controlling water hyacinth in 1998.

20. Raphaeli, ‘Rising Tensions’.

21. Raphaeli, ‘Rising Tensions’.

22. Kendie, ‘Egypt and the Hydro-Politics’, 151.

23. Kendie, ‘Egypt and the Hydro-Politics’, 157.

24. Kendie, ‘Egypt and the Hydro-Politics’,156.

25. Stanford's Global Intelligence Update, 21 April 1999.

26. Swain, ‘Ethiopia, the Sudan and Egypt’, 675–694.

27. The Washington Post, 10 September 1977.

28. Adar, ‘New Regionalism and Regional Reconstruction’.

29. Political differences between its members over ideological and sharing of costs and benefits of regional integration led to the collapse of the EAC.

30. EAC Secretariat, East African Community; Nyakwaka, ‘Globalization and Regional Integration’, 313.

31. Ajulu, ‘The New EAC’, 22.

32. EAC Secretariat, Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC, Article 5(1).

33. Nyanjom, ‘Can the EAC Help’, 197.

34. EAC Secretariat, The Second EAC Development Strategy, 20.

35. Nyanjom, ‘Can the EAC Help’, 197.

36. EAC Secretariat, Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC, Article 114(2)(b)(vi).

37. Nyanjom, ‘Can the EAC help’, 193.

38. Collins, ‘Smoothing the Water’, 3.

39. Tesfaye, Nile Question, 99.

40. ‘Egypt Reacts Strongly’, www.warmafrica.com.

41. ‘Egypt Reacts Strongly’, www.warmafrica.com.

42. ‘Tanzania Ignores Nile Treaty’, The East African, 9 February 2004.

43. SADCC, ‘Victoria Water Project Started’.

44. IRIN, ‘Drought, Insecurity’, IRINnews 3 April 2006; IRIN, ‘Red Cross Federation Appeals’, IRINnews 27 March 2006.

45. World Bank Statement on Lake Victoria Water Level, 16 March 2006.

46. World Bank Statement on Lake Victoria Water Level, 16 March 2006.

47. ‘Uganda Limits R. Nile Outflow’, New Vision (Kampala), 7 March 2006.

48. IRIN, ‘Government Struggles’, IRINnews, 6 March 2006.

49. World Bank Statement on Lake Victoria Water Level, 16 March 2006.

50. ‘African Countries to Protect River Nile’, The Monitor (Kampala), 8 March 2006.

51. ‘Race for Water Security Begins’, Mail & Guardian, 26 May 1999.

52. Badr, ‘Egypt and the Horn of Africa’.

53. Kendie, ‘Egypt and the Hydro-politics’, 162.

54. ‘East Africa: Region to Benefit’, The Daily Nation (Nairobi), 21 May 2006.

55. United Nations, Official Record, 21 September 2005 (A/60/PV.8), 9.

56. United Nations, Official Record, 21 September 2005 (A/60/PV.8), 9.

57. Metawi, ‘Lessons Learnt’, 6. See also, Tafesse, Nile Question, 104.

58. Tafesse, Nile Question, 105.

59. Tafesse, Nile Question, 105, 106

60. Collins, ‘The Inscrutable Nile’, 5.

61. Metawi, ‘Lessons Learnt’, 10–11.

62. Metawi, ‘Lessons Learnt’, 11.

63. Metawi, ‘Lessons Learnt’, 11.

64. EAC Secretariat, East African Community, 1.

65. EAC Secretariat, Protocol for Sustainable Development of Lake Victoria.

66. See EAC Secretariat, The East African Legislative Assembly Debates, 14 February 2002.

67. See EAC Secretariat, The East African Legislative Assembly Debates, 14 February 2002.

68. See EAC Secretariat, The East African Legislative Assembly Debates, 14 February 2002.

69. The Nile Basin Initiative, www.nbi.org.

70. Plaut, ‘Nile States Hold “Crisis Talks”; ‘Secret Meetings Held to Avert Water War’, Christian Science Monitor, 16 March 2004.

71. ‘East African States Negotiate with Sudan, Egypt on River Nile’, Sudan Tribune 9 April 2005.

72. ‘Countries to Formulate Fresh Laws on Nile Use’, The Standard, 23 January 2006.

73. ‘Nile Basin Countries Form Commission’, Angola Press (Luanda), 16 April 2006.

74. ‘African Countries to Protect River Nile’, The Monitor (Kampala), 8 March 2006.

75. Doya, ‘Nile Basin Countries’.

76. Doya, ‘Nile Basin Countries’.

77. Biryabarema, ‘Implement Power Master Plan’.

78. OAU, African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Article V(1).

79. OAU, African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Article V(2).

80. OAU, African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Article VII(1)(c).

81. OAU, African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Articles VII(2)(b) and (d)

82. OAU, African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Article VII(3).

83. OAU, Lagos Plan of Action, Article 82.

84. OAU, Lagos Plan of Action, Article 85.

85. The European Commission has also expressed its willingness to consider using the European Union (EU) Infrastructure Partnership Fund (IPF) – an element of the EU's Strategy for Africa – to develop hydroelectric facilities in the Eastern Nile, See ‘EU Commissioner Louis Michel Proposes a Strategy for Peace, Security and Development in the Horn of Africa’ The Report (Addis Ababa) 25 March 2006; Majyambere, ‘NBI can promote’.

86. Doya, ‘Nile Basin Countries’.

87. Wakabi, ‘Proposed Growth Triangle’.