ADDIS ABABA – The ever-expanding demand of the Egyptians for the Nile waters made it difficult to reach win-win agreements among the people of the Nile Basin said Dr. Ayele Bekerie, Associate Professor at the Department of Heritage Studies, Mekelle University.
In an article published in The Ethiopian Herald, he argued Egypt continues to preach policies that are written during the colonial times as ‘Gift means controlling and regulating the Nile waters from the sources to the mouths at all times for it.” Unlike the fellaheen of the past, the resident on the banks of the Nile seeks water for drinking, navigation, generation of electricity, irrigation and recreation and other related aspects.
He stressed that modern Egypt inherited the strategic plan Britain has prepared with regard to the long-term use of the Nile waters. Britain developed a plan to make the whole Nile Basin serve the interests of Egypt. Dams were built in Egypt whereas reservoirs for Egyptian Aswan High Dam were built in Sudan, Uganda, South Sudan, and other upper riparian countries.
With independence and with the unilateral construction of the Aswan High Dam, Egypt pursued a policy of hegemony.
He further stressed that the treaties of 1902, 1929 and 1959 are used to justify its hegemony. The only agreement that Ethiopia signed together with Egypt and Sudan was the 2015 Declaration of Principles Trilateral Agreement. The 1959 Treaty which was solely held between Egypt and Sudan allocated the entire waters of the Nile to Egypt and Sudan.
Egypt was allocated 55 billion cubic meters of water, while Sudan got 14 billion cubic meters of water. The treaty was arranged by Britain to serve its neocolonial interest in the region. The treaties are not only outdated, they are also outrageous, for they privilege Egypt, a country that does not contribute a drop to the waters of the River.
He elucidated that the 1902 Treaty was held between Britain and Ethiopia. Britain sought to control the sources of the Nile Rivers and therefore signed a treaty with Emperor Menelik II in essence agreeing not to impound the river from one bank to the other. In 1929, Britain signed an agreement with Egypt that gave veto or hegemonic power regarding the use and management of the waters. Britain signed the agreement on behalf of its colonial territories in equatorial Africa.
He said, “Invented narratology of Egypt’s historical and natural rights is central to Egypt’s arguments to keeping the vast amount of the waters to herself. Egypt brings an argument of ‘the chosen people’ by claiming that Egypt is the ‘Gift of the Nile.’ It passionately advances unilateral and hegemonic use of the waters to herself by distorting the notion of the gift. Gift implies giver and receiver,”
“The receiver ought to acknowledge to giver of the gift. After taking the gift, displaying or acting against the giver is tantamount to biting the hand that feeds. The notion of reciprocity and cooperation among the givers and receivers of the Gift should have been the basis of life in the Nile Basin. Instead we have a government in Egypt that pursue a policy of conflict and escalation in the region,” he wrapped up.
The Ethiopian Herald July 31/2020
BY ADDISALEM MULAT
