Regional conference seeks agreement on sharing Nile waters

A two-day conference of water ministers from 10 states with claims on the water of the Nile river opened in Addis Ababa on Wednesday, with calls for cooperation on the sustainable and equitable use of the river's water resources. The incoming chairman of the Nile Council of Ministers (Nile COM), Ethiopian Water Minister Shiferaw Jarsso, said the meeting heralded an era of transition "from confrontation to cooperation" in establishing an agreement for use of the Nile's water resources by riparian states. Nile COM is to come up with a final framework agreement for utilisation of the Nile's waters by 2002, to replace a 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan which allocates the largest share of the river's water between themselves. The other eight Nile states - Burundi, DRC, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda - have been lobbying for a fair share of the Nile's water ever since. The DRC is attending Nile COM for the first time, while Eritrea is being represented by the charge d'affaires of its embassy in Addis Ababa.