Egypt sees progress in settling Nile issues
Cairo appears to be making some headway in realigning with members of the Nile Basin Initiative and resolving its issues with the Entebbe Agreement, seven years after it was signed.
CAIRO — Egypt is working to restore a cooperative flow of water-sharing solutions with members of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI).
On March 13, the NBI Ministerial Committee held talks in Khartoum, Sudan, among the water ministers of Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda, in addition to representatives from Kenya and Ethiopia. An Egyptian participant in the meeting told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the talks focused on the possibility of Egypt reactivating its NBI membership. Egypt had frozen its NBI membership in 2010 in protest of the Entebbe Agreement, which rearranged Nile water allotments.
"We emphasized our desire to put aside our differences and resume work side by side with the basin countries," the Egyptian source said. "We also insisted on initiating dialogue regarding the [Entebbe] Agreement's controversial clauses."
Egypt wants to amend three clauses in the agreement. The first amendment calls for upstream countries to notify Egypt before starting any project along the Nile. The second proposal amendment defines the concept of water security, which includes recognizing Egypt's quota of the Nile's water, and the third calls for all decisions to be made in consensus with all basin countries.
