The Nile River has long been called Egypt’s lifeline. An increase in the number of African counties that have signed the Entebbe Framework Agreement, will reallocate distribution of the Nile’s water from five to six countries. Signed in March, the agreement places Egypt in a precarious position. Unwillingness and inability to address water issues with its African neighbors and on the domestic front will effectively end Egypt’s monopoly of the Nile, threatening an already struggling economy with one more burden.
Efforts that have been slowly gaining momentum for a decade to renegotiate water distribution among the African nations in the Nile Basin became a reality with the signing of the Entebbe Framework Agreement in May 2010, placing Egypt in crisis mode. While countries in the area have been negotiating and signing the agreement, politicians in Egypt are still arguing over the legality of any new water sharing agreement while ignoring diplomatic and other technical solutions.
The approach adopted by the foreign ministry under the former regime can best be characterized as irresponsible as it ignored efforts by countries in the Nile Basin to reach a new water-sharing scheme and holding firm on the position that any effort to alter the current scheme is unacceptable to Egypt. In fact, in the months leading up to the final negotiations in 2010, the Egyptian government issued a statement in which it stated that the Entebbe Agreement “is in no way binding on Egypt from a legal perspective.”
The unwillingness to negotiate also brought Egypt under heavy international criticism. In fact, in May 2010, the Economist Intelligence Unit noted that “if Egypt were to continue to battle against the agreement, it would compromise its ability to pursue broader trade and investment goals in Africa, and there would be increasing risk of political tension escalating to military conflict.”

And then there were 10
There are 10 countries in the Nile Basin: Sudan, Egypt, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. Of these 10 countries, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Burundi have signed the Entebbe Framework Agreement, which would replace the frameworks signed in 1929 and 1959 under which Egypt and Sudan received an estimated 90% of Nile water. With a six-country majority now on board, the implementation of the agreement can now begin.
Official and analysts now seem to be in conflict over what the participation of six countries in the Entebbe agreement actually means. Speaking to the local press, Mohamed Sameh Amr, Egypt’s legal advisor on the matter, highlighted an array of legal disputes pertaining the implementation of the agreement without Egypt and Sudan’s participation. Conversely, Cairo University political science professor Amr Hamzawi asserted that Burundi’s signing of the agreement signals what he calls a “detrimental step” to Egypt. In both cases, it seems that Egypt’s legal arguments are falling on deaf ears.
Hassan Husseiny, an irrigation manager at the American University’s Desert Development Center (DDC), is not surprised by this reaction. To him, it’s only natural for the Nile Basin countries to demand more water.
“These countries want to develop, and we cannot just say no to them” says Husseiny.
Instead of keeping our ears shut and just shouting “colonial-era rights” every time we sit at the table, he says that Egypt should take a more engaging approach, noting that there are numerous opportunities for cooperation that would leave all parties satisfied.
The Nile flows through 10 different countries and has two main sources, Lake Tana in Ethiopia, which feeds the Blue Nile, and Lake Victoria in southern Uganda, which feeds the White Nile. According to Husseiny, Egypt receives 85% of its annual 55 billion cubic meters (bcm) of water from the Blue Nile in Ethiopia. And it is Ethiopia that is doing all the heavy lobbying for ratification of the new agreement.

All roads lead from Addis
If the Entebbe agreement is ratified by all the parliaments of all signatory countries, Ethiopia will begin construction of hydroelectric dams. This could see Egypt’s annual share of the Nile water drop 17 bcm.
“It would be a catastrophe,” says Husseiny. “Egypt is already below the poverty line when it comes to water resources; cutting our share by 30% is a national threat.”
Poor foreign policy by Egypt over the past few decades, particularly when it comes to African nations, is likely to make it extremely difficult to convince the Ethiopian government to abort its plans. Instead of just holding talks that end with photo opportunities and little substance, local government officials need to focus on improving these relations immediately to result in concrete actions.
Husseiny explains that Ethiopia is much richer than Egypt when it comes to water resources. Contrary to popular belief that Egypt receives the lion’s share of the Nile, Ethiopia, Husseiny claims, has a bigger piece of the pie. “They have the source; it’s just a matter of harnessing it before it goes to waste.”
Lake Tana is fed by 1.2–1.5 meter rain fail every year that form rivers at mountain tops at heights exceeding 1,700 meters and descend with immense velocity and pressure. Husseiny argues that if they harness these waters, it would satisfy all their agricultural needs and reduce the need to change the sharing agreement.
This is where Egypt should be involved. Water management capabilities are something Egypt has, and this know-how should be exported to Ethiopia, Husseiny says.
“With proper management of Ethiopia’s water resources, there will be enough to go around for everyone.”
It is not just about water; Ethiopia has an abundance of arable land that it offers for rent. Countries like the US and Israel have already been investing there, and Egypt should not be the last to follow suit. Husseiny suggests that instead of importing 40% of its food from countries in Europe, Egypt should grow food in Ethiopia. It’s this kind of out-of-the-box thinking that might give Egypt a fighting chance of keeping its water allotment.
“We will get cheaper food on the back of lower wages and freight charges,” he says. “Our farms there will employ their workforce and transfer modern irrigation methods.”
It is a win-win situation, and a means by which to improve the two countries’ bilateral relations.
Other Nile basin countries also need to be approached.
“Ethiopia may be the bigger problem, but we can’t overlook the others,” says Husseiny. “[We should not] forget that South Sudan will now form the eleventh country sharing the Nile, which is sure to create new challenges.” These countries all enjoy an abundance of arable land for rent. The Congo, for example, has recently offered 80 million acres of land [for other countries to grow crops.
Overall, there are plenty of opportunities for mutual benefit between Egypt and the Nile Basin countries. Fighting a legal battle seems like the last thing that should be tried. With the availability of natural resources that has not been tapped into, Egypt can play a major role through the provision of know-how and technical transfer, as well as financial assistance.

Room for improvement
But it’s not only about how poorly Egypt has managed the problem on the external front, the former government has also poorly managed the situation on the domestic front. There is room for development in the country’s water management policies and irrigation methods. Rami Attalla, a local farm owner, explains some of the inefficiencies that exist in the current systems, particularly the extensive use of flood irrigation on most crops. He says that this method wastes a substantial amount of water.
“The problem with flood irrigation is that it causes a lot of runoff,” says Attalla. Because the canals running through the crops are flooded, excess water that does not reach the plants is drained through the soil and lost.
A more efficient way is to use sprinkle irrigation for cover crops such as wheat and grains, and drip irrigation for fruits. Attalla claims that converting to these methods could save up to half the amount of water used in agriculture.
Egypt has around 8.5 million acres of arable land; 7 million of those, mostly in the Delta and around the Nile valley, are flood irrigated. The DDC tested the drip irrigation method on one of its projects and found that not only did this it 30–40% of water usage, but the crop yield doubled.
Another major inefficiency, according to Attalla, is the uncontrolled use of the country’s aquifers, which are underground reservoirs of water that naturally exist in Egypt.
“Farmers are pumping water out of these limited reserves and then using it to flood irrigate their crops — this is crazy,” says Attalla. “[Moreover], when you go deeper it gets saltier, this increased salinity ruins the soil.”
These aquifers are considered a strategic reserve, and proper management of these resources was as good as absent over the past few decades. Crops such as bananas and rice, both of which consume large amounts of water, were regularly grown in Egypt using aquifers. Husseiny is amazed by how the previous government allowed for bananas to be grown using these aquifers when they consume 17,000 cubic meters of water per acre per year — double the amount of water that vital rice crops require and nine times that of wheat. Notwithstanding, the government chose to restrict rice in an attempt to save water whereas bananas were harvested en masse.
As a result of poor management, the water levels in these aquifers dropped by one meter in a year — near dangerous levels. In fact, continuing this trend could see farms in areas that depend on aquifers cease operations sooner than expected.
Husseiny says that what Egypt really needs is a clear agricultural policy that reflects the scarcity of water developed by the government of Egypt, and applied. Bt

“Egypt is already below the poverty line when it comes to water resources, cutting our share by 30% is a national threat.”

“With proper management of Ethiopia’s water resources, there will be enough to go around for everyone.”
 

Agreeing to Disagree

On May 7, 1929, Egypt and Britain, on behalf of its African colonies, signed the Nile Water Agreement, which allocated 48 billion cubic meters (bcm) of the Nile’s annual flow to Egypt and 4 bcm to Sudan. It did not allocate any water to the rest of the Nile Basin states. The agreement also gave Egypt exclusive rights, such as veto power on any projects along the entire length of the Nile, if such projects were deemed harmful to Egypt’s interest.
In 1959, Egypt and Sudan entered into another agreement, the Agreement for Full Utilization of the Nile, which estimated the Nile’s total annual flow at 84 bcm. Accordingly, it allocated 55.5 bcm and 18.5 bcm to Egypt and Sudan, respectively. It also granted Egypt the right to construct the Aswan High Dam and Sudan to construct the Rosaries Dam. Regarding the remaining states, if any claim over the water was presented, it was to be handled by Egypt and Sudan together (the legal argument that the government is attached to). If such claims prevailed, the amount of water to be redistributed was to be deducted from both counties’ annual share.
As African states gained their independence, they have heavily criticized these agreements, which completely ignore their needs. This gave birth to the Nile Basin Initiative in 1999, which was aimed at reaching a fair framework for sharing and developing the Nile, arriving at the countries’ current dispute. bt