Spearheading Nile cooperation
Ethiopia has extended the olive branch to all basin countries of Nile, particularly to downstream ones. The gift has been keenly noticed by a great majority of the countries.
The country has been planting billions of saplings this rainy season. On Monday, Ethiopia has set a new world record through planting over 350 million saplings in just 12 hours.
As many experts already say, this would help to protect silt and sedimentation at downstream countries in the long run while possibly increases the water in its river courses including the Nile. This is a unilateral practical step that Ethiopia has taken recently.
Of course, such steps have already become the defining attributes of the country.
Years before the laying of the cornerstone to the building of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia actively participated in the drafting of the Cooperative Framework of Agreement on the Nile.
The document is meant to throne a spirit of cooperation among the ten Nile Riparian Countries on principles such as equitable and fair utilization of the waters and causing non-significant harm on downstream countries.
The countries contribution has been practical. It has coordinated the upper basin countries to sign and ratify the document that will award a new lease of life to almost a half billion people living in the riparian. It spearheaded the building of trust and cooperation and has worked to ensure lasting peace in the basin.
It is to be recalled that a draft CFA text was submitted to the Council of Ministers of Water Affairs of the Nile Basin States (Nile-COM) in March 2006. On May 14, 2010, following years of discussion and negotiation, for countries, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda signed the CFA in Entebbe, Uganda.
Kenya and Burundi followed the countries’ suit. Again, Ethiopia fostered the ratification process and the legislature passed the document and it has deposited the instrument of ratification at African Union. Rwanda and Tanzania as well at various times have endorsed the document. Recently, Uganda is on the right track to join the club.
History has already recorded the practical steps that Ethiopia has taken in pushing for the establishment of the International Panel of Experts (IPoE). It as well accepted the recommendation made by the panel and put them to practice. To further solidify the trust, it also green-lighted the establishment of Tripartite National Committee-TNC and proven readiness for cooperation and brotherhood.
Furthermore, following the meeting of Water and Foreign Ministers of the trio held on May 15, 2018 in Addis Ababa, the three countries have established the national independent scientific research study group which tirelessly worked to come up with an agreeable solution for the challenges the three countries faced.
Now the cooperation among the basin states, with Ethiopia taking the lead goose effect, has reached a point of no return.
Almost each country in the basin has reached consensus that they must push for a new era of cooperation. Cooperation that participates each of the country, and cooperation tailored to the size of the peoples. The countries and their peoples’ ardent fights have already granted them sovereignty, dismantling the shackles of colonialism, and its legacies.
Yet, half a billion of the people are still trapped in a quagmire of poverty. The population growth is also spiraling at an alarming rate. Contrary to this, due to lack of cooperation and strong institution that coordinate cooperation among the basin states, the waters are still exposed to wastages. Alas! Almost half of the waters of Nile have been wasted due to evaporation and seepage.
To sum up, the final seal of cooperation in the Nile is the coming to being of the Nile River Basin Commission. Hence, Uganda has entered to the right track to join the club, and the rest countries must follow suit for the benefits of their own peoples.
The Ethiopian Herald August 2/2019
BY ABDUREZAK MOHAMMED
