Bridge Across the River Nile
Daraja Juu ya Mto Nile Pont sur le Nil
Mark Mwandosya
E & D Vision Publishing Dar es Salaam E & D Vision Publishing Limited P. O. Box. 4460 Dar es Salaam Tanzania. Email: [email protected] Website: www.edvisionpublishing.co.tz
Bridge Across the River Nile © Mark Mwandosya, 2017
ISBN: 978 9987 735 54 9
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission of E&D Vision Publishing Limited. Dedication
To: Isaac James Mwandosya (RIP), Segelile Ifunga Magombe (RIP); and Lucy Akiiki Marunga, Max, Sekela, Emmanuel, Tusekile and Lusekelo; and Christina Masika, Godfrey, Joyceline and Digna.
iii Table of Contents
Dedication...... iii List of Figures...... v List of Images...... v List of Maps ...... vii List of Tables ...... viii Abbreviations ...... ix Preface...... xiv Acknowledgements ...... xxxi 1. About the River Nile...... 1 2. Engineering in the Nile River Basin...... 33 3. The River Nile and the Nile Basin in the 19th Century ...... 77 4. Understanding the River Nile through Treaties in the 20th Century .. . 84 5. Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia and the Nile Water Treaties...... 90 6. Nyerere Doctrine on State Succession ...... 107 7. Rules and Regulations for the Utilisation of International Watercourse Systems ...... 119 8 Towards a Permanent Mechanism for Cooperation in the Nile Basin...... 132 9. Conflict and Cooperation on theWaters of the Nile...... 162 10. Regional and Zonal Institutions in the Nile Basin...... 185 11. International Transboundary Water Basins...... 200 12. Egypt and the River Nile Basin...... 223 13. South Sudan: A New State in the River Nile Basin...... 254 14. Other Resources ...... 264 15. Conclusions...... 283
References...... 299 Appendices ...... 312
iv List of Figures
Figure 1: Water Balance Scheme of the Nile River Basin ...... 15 Figure 2: The Scheme of Rivers, Dams and Lakes in the Nile River Basin 16 Figure 3: Average Annual Flow of the Nile River at Aswan ...... 23 Figure 4: Lake Victoria Altitude above Sea Level ...... 41 Figure 5: Cross Section of the Aswan High Dam and the Old Aswan Dam ...... 70 Figure 6: The Lake Victoria Kahama Shinyanga Water Scheme, Tanzania ...... 73 Figure 7: Slopes of the Nile from the Sea Level ...... 76 Figure 8: Regional Cooperation Institutions in the Nile River Basin ... .199
List of Images
Image 1: The Ruwenzori Mountains as seen from Fort Portal, Uganda ...... xvii Image 2: The El Bashier (Shandi El Matama) Bridge, Sudan ...... 5 Image 3: Nile River at Aswan, Egypt ...... 10 Image 4: The Blue Nile (left) meets the White Nile (right) at Khartoum to form the Nile ...... 15 Image 5: The Sudd Wetlands of South Sudan ...... 19 Image 6: The Sekela Springs, source of the Blue Nile (Abay) ...... 20 Image 7: Home of the Sekela Springs ...... 20 Image 8: Lake Tana at Bahr Dar, Amhara, Ethiopia ...... 21 Image 9: Tis Abay Falls, Blue Nile River, Ethiopia ...... 21 Image 10: Blue Nile River at Tis Abay, Amhara, Ethiopia ...... 22 Image 11: At the spot where the Victoria Nile begins its journey northwards and where the Ripon Falls used to be ...... 36 Image 12: Owen (Nalubaale) Falls Dam and Power Station, Uganda .. 39
v Image 13: The Bujagali Power Station, Uganda ...... 43 Image 14: The Sudd Wetlands, Sudan ...... 46 Image 15: The Jebel Auliya Dam, Sudan ...... 47 Image 16: Sennar Dam, Sudan ...... 48 Image 17: The Gezira Irrigation Scheme, Sudan ...... 48 Image 18: The Roseires Dam, Sudan ...... 49 Image 19: The Merowe Dam ...... 50 Image 20: The Merowe Power Station ...... 51 Image 21: River Nile Downstream the Merowe Power Station, Sudan .. 52 Image 22: The Setit Upstream of the Burdane Dam ...... 52 Image 23: The Setit downstream of the Burdane Dam ...... 53 Image 24: The Blue Nile (Abay) River in the area to be inundated by the GERD ...... 56 Image 25: Inspecting the Construction of GERD ...... 57 Image 26: Construction of the GERD, Ethiopia, 2014 ...... 59 Image 27: The GERD and Power Station artistic impression upon completion ...... 60 Image 28: Aswan High Dam ...... 65 Image 29: The Muhammad Ahmad Ibn Al-Sayyid, Abd Allah Al-Mahdi Mausoleum ...... 80 Image 30: Water Hyacinth in Lake Victoria ...... 159 Image 31: Lake Albert at Ntoroko, Uganda ...... 271 Image 32: Lake Kivu ...... 278 Image 33: The hash-tag on Nile Cooperation at the Headquarters of the Nile Basin Initiative ...... 290 Image 34: The hash-tag on One Nile at the Headquarters of the Nile Basin Initiative ...... 291 Image 35: El Shaheed el Zubeir Bridge, Doungla, Sudan ...... 293 Image 36: Pyramids of the Kings of Merowe, Sudan ...... 298 vi List of Maps
Map 1: Nile River Basin ...... 8 Map 2: Nile River Basin States ...... 9 Map 3: Total Rainfall in the Nile Basin 1960-90 ...... 13 Map 4: The Republic of Uganda ...... 37 Map 5: The Republic of Sudan ...... 47 Map 6: The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia ...... 55 Map 7: Location of the GERD ...... 57 Map 8: Arab Republic of Egypt ...... 70 Map 9: The Democratic Republic of Congo ...... 87 Map 10: Electricity Grid linking Ethiopia and Sudan ...... 152 Map 11: The Rusumo Falls Hydropower Project ...... 153 Map 12: The Republic of Burundi ...... 186 Map 13: The Republic of Rwanda ...... 187 Map 14: Kagera Basin Wetlands and Biodiversity ...... 190 Map 15: Lake Victoria Basin ...... 192 Map 16: The Indus River and its Tributaries ...... 210 Map 17: The Gabčíkovo–Nagymaros Project as Implemented by Slovakia ...... 221 Map 18: The Danube River Basin ...... 222 Map 19: Republic of South Sudan showing the former 10 states . . 263 Map 20: The Republic of Kenya ...... 267 Map 21: The Republic of South Sudan ...... 270 Map 22: The United Republic of Tanzania ...... 277 Map 23: Map of the Republic of Eritrea ...... 289
vii List of Tables
Table 1: Nile Basin State Areas and State Basin Areas ...... 7 Table 2: Population of the Nile River Basin ...... 9 Table 3: Contribution of Tributaries to the Nile River ...... 13 Table 4: Large Electricity Generation Projects in the World ...... 57 Table 5: Attendance of Nile Basin States to Nile COM Meetings . . 145 Table 6: Kagera River Basin Area ...... 190 Table 7: Equatorial Great Lakes and River Basins ...... 195 Table 8: Transboundary River Basins ...... 202 Table 9: Annual Discharge of Major Transboundary Rivers ...... 203 Table 10: Transboundary River in SADC ...... 204 Table 11: Transboundary River Basins in SADC ...... 205 Table 12: Groundwater in the Nile Basin States ...... 266 Table 13: Crude Oil Refineries inEgypt ...... 273 Table 14: Exploration, Discovery and Development of Natural Gas in Tanzania ...... 275
viii Abbreviations
AACC All Africa Council of Churches ABC Abyei Boundaries Commission ACODE Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment AD After the birth of Christ ADF Agence Française de Développement AfDB African Development Bank Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du AFDL Congo AKFED Aga Khan Foundation for Economic Development AMISOM African Union Mission to Somalia AMREF African Medical Research Foundation AU African Union ATPS African Technology Policy Studies AUSOM African Union Mission to Somalia AVC American University of Cairo BC Before Christ C Centigrade CAR Central African Republic CCECC China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Centre for Energy Environment Science and Technology CEEST Foundation CFA Nile Basin Cooperation Framework Agreement CIDA Canadian International Development Agency CNDD Conseil National Pour la Défense de la Démocratie CNDD-FDD CNDD- Forces pour la Défense de la Démocratie COM Council of Ministers COMESA Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa Commonwealth of Parties to the United Nations COP Framework Convention CPA Comprehensive Peace Agreement Centre for Research in Water Resources (University of CRWR Texas Austin) CTGC China Three Gorges Company CUP Cambridge University Press CWE China International Water and Electric Corporation DC District of Columbia DEG Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft
ix DIFD Department for International Development (UK) DIU Dam Implementation Unit (Sudan) DM Deutsche Mark DR Democratic Republic of DRC Democratic Republic of Congo DUP Dar-es-Salaam University Press EAPD Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development EGCL Economic Community of the Great Lakes Ed. Editor Eds. Editors EFTCA Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa EIB European Investment Bank ENSAP Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Program ENSO El Nino Southern Oscillation EPLF Eritrea People’s Liberation Front EU European Union EWURA Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority FDLR Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda FMO Dutch development bank FNL Forces nationales de libération FRODEBU Front pour la Démocratie au Burundi GEF Global Environment Facility GERD Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam GI Government of India GRU Government of the Republic of Uganda HC House of Commons of the United Kingdom Human Immunodeficiency virus infection/Acquired HIV/AIDS Immunodeficiency Syndrome HYCOS Hydrological Observation System Hydromet Hydrometeorological Survey IAHS International Association of Hydrological Sciences ICC International Criminal Court ICE Institution of Civil Engineers UK IGAD Intergovernmental Authority on Development Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and IGADD Development IGADSOM IGAD Peace Support Mission to Somalia ILA International Law Association x ILC International Law Commission Image Image Independent Panel of Experts on the Grand Ethiopian IPoE Renaissance Dam IPSTC International Peace Support Training Centre ITCZ Inter Tropical Convergence Zone IUCN International Union for the Conservation of Nature IWMI International Water Management Institute KASHWASA Kahama Shinyanga Water and Sanitation Authority KBO Kagera Basin Organisation KFAED Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development KJV King James Version km kilometre KP Kyoto Protocol KV Kilovolt LNG Liquefied Natural Gas LoC Line of Control LRA Lord’s Resistance Army LV Lake Victoria LVBC Lake Victoria Basin Commission LVFC Lake Victoria Fisheries Commission LVWATSAN Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Programme MCSLV Marine Communication for Safety on Lake Victoria Mount Elgon Regional Ecosystem Conservation MERECP Programme mm millimetre United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the MONUSCO Democratic Republic of Congo MW Megawatts NBI Nile Basin Initiative NBTAC Nile Basin Technical Advisory Committee NEDECO Netherlands Engineering Consultants NELCOM Nile Equatorial Lakes Committee of Ministers NELSAP Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Programme NELSAP-CU NELSAP Coordination Unit NIF National Islamic Front of Sudan NILE HYCOS Nile Hydrological Observation System Nile COM Conference of Ministers of the Nile Basin
xi NRBAP Nile River Basin Action Plan NRM National Resistance Movement NUWA National Urban Water Authority OUP Oxford University Press PARIPEHUTU Parti pour la libération du peuple Hutu PCA Permanent Court of Arbitration PCIJ Permanent Court of International Justice PJTC Permanent Joint Technical Commission of Egypt and Sudan PRC People’s Republic of China French Investment and Promotions Company for Economic PROPARCO Development PU Pretoria University RCC Roller Compacted Concrete REGWA General Company for Research in Ground Water RP Resettlement Plan RTI Radio Technologies International SAC Sectoral Advisory Council SADC Southern Africa Development Community SPLA Sudan People’s Liberation Army SPLM Sudan People’s Liberation Movement SSIM South Sudan Independence Movement SUMATRA Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority SUMED Suez-Mediterranean Oil Pipeline SVP Shared Vision Programme TAC Technical Advisory Committee TCRA Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority Technical Co-operation Committee for the Promotion of TECCONILE the Development Environmental Protection of the Nile Basin TECCONILE TECCONILE Committee of Ministers COM TFDDB Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Data Base (OU) Technical National Committee for the Grand Ethiopian TNC Renaissance Dam TPDC Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation TPDF Tanzania People’s Defence Force TVA Tennessee Valley Authority UK United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland UN United Nations xii UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNEP United Nations Environment Programme United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West UNESCWA Asia UNFAO United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural UNESCO Organisation UNISFA United Nations Interim Security Force in Abyei UNMISS United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan US United States of America USA United States of America USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics UT University of Texas WCC World Council of Churches WHO World Health Organisation WHYCOS World Hydrological Cycle Observation System WMO World Meteorological Organisation
xiii Preface
n 1990 the Second Phase President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Ali IHassan Mwinyi, appointed me Principal Secretary (Permanent Secretary), Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals. As the Principal Secretary I was the most senior civil servant and the accounting officer of the Ministry. The Ministry comprised of three departments; Water, Energy and Minerals. These technical departments were headed by Commissioners whose functions were defined in their respective legislations. The administrative structure of the Ministry included three units; Administration, Planning and Finance, each of which was headed by Director. Previous to my being Principal Secretary, I was the first Commissioner of Petroleum Affairs, having been appointed in accordance with the Petroleum (Exploration and Production Act 1980), one of the last appointments to be made by the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, just before his retirement. Having headed the Department of Energy for five years, my being promoted to the position of Principal Secretary gave me an opportunity, and I decided to concentrate on water issues. Water is life. Non availability of clean and safe water, particularly for domestic use, was and continues to be the concern of the majority of Tanzanians. As such, the water sector continues to be a priority area in government development plans. By choosing to concentrate on oversight of the water sector I would assist the then Minister responsible for water, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete in responding to the numerous enquiries, demands, requests and questions by parliamentarians, civic bodies and the populace in general. Secondly, as Principal Secretary, I automatically became Chairman of the Board of the National Urban Water Authority -NUWA. Supplying clean and safe water to a large and growing metropolis of Dar-es-Salaam was and continues to be a daunting task but a challenge that has to be met none-the-less. Although national in designation, NUWA was effectively a Dar-es-Salaam water and xiv sanitation authority. Apart from tackling Dar-es-Salaam water woes I spent a considerable amount of time in the rural, semi urban and peri-urban areas of the country in order to inspect water sources, their destruction and protection, water production and conveyance and storage systems where they exist. I had the opportunity, a unique opportunity for that matter, to meet with people, listen to their complaints, learn from their indigenous knowledge, and gauge their readiness to contribute to government initiatives. I have since then been an activist of sorts in the mission to improve water availability, quality, source protection and to highlight water as a human right. It is a general belief that luck does not come twice to one person. However, in matters related to water or rather oversight of water related issues, luck came my way again when President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete appointed me as Minister of State in the Office of the Vice President responsible for the environment. One of the major challenges confronting planet Earth is the lack of, and diminishing quantities of water due to a rapid increase in population and human induced consequences such as diminution of vegetative cover and destruction of forests and encroachment of water sources. So as to have a systematic approach to manage the environment it was incumbent upon US to develop a National Strategy for the Protection of Land and Water Sources. The strategy was promulgated on 1 April 2006. We went along to develop a similar National Strategy for the Protection of the Maritime, Coastal, Lacustrine, Dams, and Riverine Environment. The latter strategy was later to be announced officially on 6 July 2010. My encounter with the water sector management was not over. For, in 2008 President Kikwete appointed me Minister for Water and Irrigation, and thereafter Minister of Water from 2010 to 2012. In this capacity, I broadened my scope and became more interested in transboundary waters, including the Nile Basin, of which Tanzania forms a part. In respect of water resources Tanzania is divided into nine drainage basins thus: the Ruvuma River Basin, the Rufiji River Basin, the Ruvu River Basin, the Pangani River Basin, the Lake Victoria Basin, the Lake Tanganyika Basin, the Lake Rukwa Basin, the Lake Nyasa Basin, and the Inland Drainage Basin. Except for the Ruvu River, Rufiji River, Lake Rukwa, and the Inland Drainage Basins, the rest are transboundary basins. The Lake Victoria Basin forms a
xv large part of the Lake Victoria sub-basin of the Nile River Basin, comprising of parts of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, as well. This was not the first time that the writer had had an encounter with the Nile River. For the readers will recall the primary and secondary school geography and early history lessons in which the Nile River and its basin featured prominently. We do recall among other things, the following about Egypt especially: the pyramids, ancient temples, mummified human remains, ancient artefacts, hieroglyphics, ancient Roman, Greek and Egyptian civilisations, the famous tour of Egypt by Julius Caesar and his friend Cleopatra, the arrival of Christianity, the rise of Islam, and the rise of Alexandria as a city dominant in education, scientific, mathematical research development and discourse. Northern Sudan was a southern extension of this growth as indeed Egypt was the extension of the Nubian and Kush civilisation, depending on the epoch in question. There is no doubt whatsoever that the rise of civilisation on this part of the continent of Africa was the result of the presence of Nile River. An ancient Greek scholar and philosopher Herodotus is believed to have described Egypt using the following legendary words: “Egypt is the gift of the Nile River”, underscoring the fact that without the Nile River Egypt would not be in existence. This important dictum is now enshrined in the Preamble to the new Egyptian Constitution of 2012. TheNile River has astounded, charmed, enchanted and intrigued many over the course of history and many a generation. Initially during the Roman and Greek empires the source of the river was postulated to be at the First Cataract from where the river cut a natural course via the delta to the Mediterranean Sea. That was the Nile River as was known then to the outside world. The actual source of the river was unknown, a mystery. To emphasise this point, Herodotus postulated that the source of the river was at the First Cataract. However, in order to explain the source of water south beyond the cataract he surmised that the cataract was not the source of one river, but of two rivers; the River Nile, flowing north, and another river flowing south to Ethiopia. Another ancient scholar and geographer by the name of Hecataeus was somewhat nearer to the truth, when he asserted that the world was round. According to him, however, the world comprised of two continents only; Europe and Asia. North Africa, comprising xvi of Egypt and Libya, was part of Asia. The two continents were supposed to be surrounded by a sea, “Oceania”. TheEuphrates, Tigris, and Indus Rivers were south bound and terminated in “Oceania”. The Red Sea was also connected to “Oceania” to the south. “Oceania” on the south was considered to be the source of the River Nile, connecting “Oceania” and the Mediterranean Sea. Another ancient Greek scholar of equal prominence was none other than Ptolemy. A resident of Alexandria around the second century BC, Ptolemy was able to describe the River Nile in clearer terms than his predecessors and his peers. For according to him, and as shown in his map, the river originated from what he called the snow covered Mountains of the Moon (Ruwenzori Mountains). The cartographic map that he drew also showed the existence in the south of three lakes as sources of tributaries of the River Nile (Victoria, Albert and Tana or Tsana) (Evans 1994).
Image 1: TheRuwenzori Mountains as seen from Fort Portal, Uganda (Courtesy of Lucy Mwandosya)
Enter the 19th century. Efforts by the outside, non-African world, to find the source of the River Nile went hand in hand with the colonisation of the continent. One John Hanning Speke, for example, an officer in the colonial Indian Army was to reach a place called Isamilo, a lake side settlement in the middle of the African continent. So large was the lake that by his imagination that could be nothing other than the source of the River Nile! He named the body of water Lake Victoria in recognition of the rule of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and the Commonwealth (Cavendish 2008).
xvii Later, on 28 July 1862, Speke arrived at the northern side of the lake, observing as he did magnificent water falls from the lake into a major northbound large river. In his despatch to the Royal Geographic Society of England, an organisation which had sponsored his travel, he announced that he had “discovered” the source of the River Nile. In recognition of the long serving Chairman of the Royal Geographic Society he named the falls, Ripon Falls (Cavendish 2008). The “discovery” of the source of the Nile notwithstanding, the falls had been there since the formation of the Lake. The indigenes had been there from time immemorial and had known of the existence of the Falls. The term discovery as used by Speke was therefore not correct. He rather made the existence of the Falls known to his peer and the public in England. Alternately, he would have been correct if he could say he was the first European to visit the area. Furthermore, the Ripon Falls are not and were not the source of the Nile. The springs which source theNyabarongo River in Rwanda, a tributary of the Akagera River which enters Lake Victoria as the Kagera, are the source of the Nile. Incidentally, Nyanza and Nalubaale, are the references to Lake Victoria by the inhabitants of the lake shore. The reader will no doubt conclude from references herein and other sources that the River Nile is perhaps one of the most studied, researched, and explored rivers in the world, historically, hydrologically, geologically, archaeologically, and anthropologically. The River Nile and its basin is thus a source of numerous literature including books, journals, artefacts, exhibitions and films. Much of this literature is available in English and/or Arabic. Writers about the Nile in Arabic must be commended. For one to appreciate a fact and knowledge in general, an understanding of the local language and culture is essential. No major source on or about the Nile has thus far been available in Kiswahili. This book was initially published in Kiswahili. The decision was taken in consideration of the belief that one does not lose context if one thinks and writes in the language of one’s origin. In addition, Kiswahili is a major African language after Arabic and is spoken by well over 120 million people the world over. The importance of Tanzanian and East African scholars to write books in Kiswahili cannot therefore be over emphasised. That being said, however, the fact remains that knowledge is universal. This universality dictates the xviii incumbency of translating the book into English, a universal language, or as Mwalimu Nyerere put it “English is the universal Swahili”. Back to the Nile and its basin, the River Nile is transboundary. The Nile Basin stretches across 11 countries: Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania. A very small area of the Basin is in the Central African Republic. Just like many international waters, the Nile Basin is beset with a myriad of challenges. Cultural and traditional differences abound. The northern part of the Basin, comprising of Egypt and Sudan which are Arabic, is different from the great lakes area, the great lakes being Victoria, Kyoga and Albert. While Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia have a history stretching over millennia, some of which is written, the great lakes area is rich in traditions and oral history. Ethiopia has never been colonised, except for the brief invasion and occupation by Mussolini of Italy. The rest of theNile Basin countries have experienced colonial rule. Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanganyika were under the dominion of Great Britain at various times, while Rwanda and Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo were colonised by the Belgians. In respect of security, Egypt has by far the largest standing army and has been politically and economically more advanced and more influential within and outside the basin, in comparison with the other River Nile riparians. The hegemony exerted by Egypt has been a matter of concern to other Basin states. While these differences would at a glance be the causes of disagreements on the use of the waters of the Nile, they also provide a strong argument and foundation for cooperation. The disparity in development and growth of the economies of the riparians is good enough a reason for basin wide cooperation. The River Nile provides an umbilical cord which is the lifeline of these countries. It is imperative that riparians cooperate in the use of the Nile waters, in the protection of the water sources, in the protection of the environment, for sustainable development and poverty elimination. In this regard lower riparians could greatly benefit from the knowledge and know how of the upper riparians, Egypt and Sudan on water resource, research, and technology management and development, and irrigation. Thelower riparians should obviously be mindful of the nature of the basin, that their contribution to the waters of the Nile are insignificant
xix and they largely depend on the waters from Africa’s water tower, the Ethiopian Mountains, and from the great lakes of equatorial Africa. Some scholars, and many politicians have predicted that should a third world war be a reality in the future, it would be caused by disagreements over the sharing of scarce and diminishing transboundary international fresh waters. Granted, there are and will continue to be disagreements concerning the use or misuse of transboundary waters, and these may lead into disputes. Yet, the existence of transboundary waters can be and has been a cause for lasting cooperation, especially in cases where binding agreements result from negotiations, however long they may take. TheIndus Agreement between India and Pakistan is a case in point. The writer of this book subscribes to the school of thought that despite numerous and difficult challenges intransboundary water use, this reason alone cannot and will not be the cause of the next world war. The River Nile and its entire Basin has to be and should undoubtedly be a source of cooperation and ultimately economic and political union of the Nile Basin. Before proceeding, let US return to what would ordinarily be obvious but needs constant reminder, the importance of water as underscored in the dictum: “Water is Life”. A human being can live long without food, as proven by many people who fast. They cannot survive as long without water. The food which makes growth possible and makes US survive from day to day, be it protein or carbohydrates based, needs water for growth, transportation, processing and eventual preparation for cooking. Vegetation including trees with which the majority of people in developing countries depend on to cook; vegetables, and fruits which sustain human life, need water to grow and are largely full of and require water before and during use. Hydroelectricity as the name suggests is sourced from the potential energy that exists in water. It has been, it is and will continue to power social and economic development. Water enables flora and fauna, marine and aerial life to exist and thrive. Water is the essence of environmental well being and sustainability of life. The availability and/or timely availability of rains may spell a bumper crop for a peasant and a farmer in a developing country. Doom and hunger are a result of uneven, unreliable and the absence of rains. Sixty percent of the human xx body comprises of water by weight. The rest is hard bone and other chemicals. Even for hard bone, fifty percent of it is water by weight. That the human body is largely, eighty percent, nothing but water is a correct proposition. This can be manifested in the event of cremation whereby the human body is reduced to ashes which can only fill a small container. Indeed “Water is Life”. Many religious beliefs and faiths proclaim the immutable link between water, human creation and life. The Holy Quran asserts:
Surah Al-Anbiya, Verse 30: ا َم ُها َن ْق َت َف َف ا ًق ْت َر ا َت َنا َك َض ْرأَ ْلا َو ِتا َوا َمَ ّسلا َ ّنأَ او ُر َف َك َني ِذَ ّلا َر َي ْم َل َوأَ َ َ نو ُن ِم ْؤ ُي ا َل َفأ ٍ ّي َح ٍء ْي َش َ ّل ُك ِءا َم ْلا َن ِم ا َن ْل َع َج َو “Do not those who disbelieve see that the heavens and the Earth were closed up, but We have opened them; and We have made of water everything living, will they not then believe?” (English - Shakir) In another verse of the Holy Quran we are reminded: Surah An-Noor, Verse 45: ْ نَ ّم مهُ ْن ِم َو ِه ِنط َب ٰى َل َع ي ِش ْم َي نَ ّم مهُ ْن ِم َف ٍءاَ ّم نِ ّم ٍةَ ّبا َد َ ّل ُك َق َل َخ هَُ ّللا َو َ ُءا َش َي ا َم هَُ ّللا ُق ُل ْخ َي ٍع َب ْرأ ٰى َل َع ي ِش ْم َي نَ ّم مهُ ْن ِم َو ِن ْي َل ْج ِر ٰى َل َع ي ِش ْم َي ٌري ِد َق ٍء ْي َش ِ ّل ُك ٰى َل َع َهَ ّللا َ ّنإِ “And Allah has created from water every living creature: so of them is that which walks upon its belly, and of them is that which walks upon two feet, and of them is that which walks upon four; Allah creates what He pleases; surely Allah has power over all things” (English - Shakir). Furthermore, in yet another verse it is proclaimed that: Surah Al-Furqan, Verse 54: ا ًري ِد َق َكُ ّب َر َنا َك َو ا ًر ْه ِص َو ا ًب َس َن هُ َل َع َج َف ا ًر َش َب ِءا َم ْلا َن ِم َق َل َخ ي ِذَ ّلا َوهُ َو “And He it is Who has created man from the water, then He has made for him blood relationship and marriage relationship, and your Lord is powerful” (English - Shakir).
xxi In respect of the relation between water, human existence it is further emphasised in: Surah Qaf, Verse 9: َ ِدي ِص َح ْلا َ ّب َح َو ٍتاَ ّن َج ِه ِب ا َن ْت َبنأ َف ا ًك َرا َبُ ّم ًءا َم ِءا َمَ ّسلا َن ِم ا َن ْلَ ّز َن َو “And We send down from the cloud water abounding in good, then We cause to grow thereby gardens and the grain that is reaped” (English - Shakir). The verses of the Holy Book, the Holy Quran referred to above confirm the essence of water to life and creation and its spiritual importance as well. Hindu is a religion practiced by the majority of people in the Indian subcontinent. The Hindu Holy Book, Bhagavad, is a reference point in Hindu religious beliefs. The holy book is full of tales and mythology that highlight the importance of water to humanity and life. In one of these tales, it is believed that a major conflagration reduced much of the world to ashes, including human life. The Earth became dry and largely a desert. The few remaining inhabitants of planet Earth sent one Kapil Rashi to the Himalaya Mountains to pray and request Almighty Gods for forgiveness and for water on Earth. In Hindu religion it is believed that Gods exist as one in trinity: Lord Brahma, the lord of creation; Lord Shiva, the lord of destruction; and Lord Vishnu, the protector of life. After listening attentively to Kapil’s request the Lord Gods accepted the request and agreed to restore water to Earth. However, they cautioned that the amount of water to be delivered would by volume and speed be such that destruction could occur on Earth. In the event they decided that the water would be delivered to Earth via the Lord Shiva’s hair, an act which would slow down the rate of delivery and as such reduce its destructive perspective, onwards to the River Ganges (Kapila 2013). This is the essence of the “source” of the Ganges which is revered as a Holy River in Hindu religion, a river that is sourced in the Himalayas and traverses over 2525 kilometres terminating into the Bay of Bengal. A similar tale in Hindu mythology is about King Bhagirath. He is supposed to be the one king who made prayers and requests to Lord Brahma for over a millennium. Lord Brahma would finally grant his request to deliverRiver Ganges from heaven to Earth in order that its waters would cleanse the ashes that arose out of deaths brought about by the wrath of the Gods. Upon the xxii acceptance of King Bhagirath request, Lord Shiva directed him to pass the request to or through Lord Shiva who was uniquely placed to reduce the rate of flow of the Ganges from heaven to Earth. Lord Shiva obliged and the Ganges was delivered to Earth via his massive hair. The two tales are similar and tell a lot. They are about River Ganges which is in essence God’s gift to humanity, however one conceivesGod. At the time of creation of the mythology, the entire world, from the standpoint of the Hindi, was the Indian subcontinent. The Ganges is a holy river. They pray, wash, drink, spread into it ashes of cremation in the belief that by so doing they are cleansed and in the event of death they will encounter their loved ones who died before them. What a powerful confirmation of the truth that: “Water is Life”. Water is also a subject of immense importance in the other Abrahamic religions in addition to Islam. The Jewish Bible (Torah) and the Christian Bible converge in the Old Testament. In Genesis it is revealed that: In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Genesis 1:1-2). The Holy Book further informs us: And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so (Genesis 1:6-7). Firmament, in Biblical cosmology is a structure, a vast dome above the atmosphere which according to the book of Genesis God created to separate the “waters above” and “the waters below”. The relationship between water and creation is underscored in the following verses: And God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas; and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:9-10).
xxiii “And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and came into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; (Genesis 2:8-11).
And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates (Genesis 2:13-14). The revelation above is clear; water is God’s gift to humanity. A common thread among all creeds is that water is the source of life. In the absence of water productive land turns into mere desert and life deserts it. Where there is water life is plentiful and vegetation abounds. We are also reminded of the power of water through, floods, hurricanes, landslides, which are experienced regularly. In the event that water flow is not controlled the severity of the damage from water is high. These three aspects of water characteristics are well known to and are part of the history of the people of the Nile Basin. Floods have occurred frequently in the Basin. Floods have replenished soils and have been the mainstay of agriculture in the basin and have sustained life and civilisation. Control of floods is a subject which has occupied the minds and vocation of rulers, administrators and scholars in the Nile Basin for centuries. The aim has been to ensure the availability of water for different crops over the year. This has been and is being done through the construction of dams for irrigation and electricity production. What a better way to explain this engineering phenomenon than passing the waters of the Nile through “the massive hair of Lord Shiva”. Accordingly, this book is arranged as follows: The First Chapter describes the geophysical characteristics of theRiver xxiv Nile Basin. The reader of the book has the opportunity to follow the flow of the River from the springs which give rise to the Nyabarongo River in Rwanda, the source of the White Nile. Nyabarongo is a tributary of the Akagera, which drains into Lake Victoria. The other source of the Nile are the springs known as Sekela, the source of the Blue Nile, or Abay as the river is referred to in Ethiopia. These and other tributaries give rise to the main river which flows northwards to the delta region, emptying the waters via two main branches, the Damietta and the Rosetta. The River Nile Basin is itself made of a number of sub-basins, prominent of which are the Lake Victoria Basin, the Sudd, the Sobat Basin, the White Nile, the Blue Nile and the Nile itself. The Second Chapter is about the infrastructure that has and continues to be constructed in the Nile Basin. Over millennia, the people of the basin have strived to use technology, engineering and indigenous knowledge in order to exploit the waters of the Nile for survival and advancement. This Chapter explains the cooperative endeavour of rulers and administrators, and the technical expertise, and how each class has influenced or has been influential in decisions leading to the construction of infrastructure. Construction of infrastructure in the basin should always be a cooperative endeavour and a stimulus for cooperation and information sharing because the basin is one single unit. Short of that, infrastructure construction may become a cause for disunity and misunderstanding. “Engineering the Nile River” is the longest chapter of the book. Chapter Three of this book is about treaties and agreements which have given rise to the present political economy of the Basin. These treaties and agreements largely resulted from the nineteenth century setting at the time of the “Scramble for Africa”, an epoch whereby imperial Europe redrew the map of Africa according to various spheres of influence. In respect of theNile Valley the treaties were related to boundaries, water extraction, and construction or prohibition of the construction of infrastructure. Chapter Four of the book is a sequel to Chapter Three in the sense that protocols, agreements and treaties which relate to imperial Europe and Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan are examined in more detail. This examination lays the basis for an understanding of the present state of affairs in cooperation among the
xxv Nile Basin states. By and large the protocols, agreements and treaties are about construction of works in the Nile Basin. The Fifth Chapter is about two important and yet most controversial of all the contemporary agreements. The first agreement was made in an exchange of letters between the envoy of Great Britain in Cairo and the Egyptian Government. It concerns the division of the Nile waters for irrigation purposes and gives Egypt overall mandate and oversight of any developments along the Nile. The second agreement was drawn up byEgypt and Sudan for the full utilisation of the waters of the Nile. The two agreements are controversial in that they were entered into without the consent of the upper riparians, with Great Britain purporting to have represented these countries as a colonial power in respect of the earlier agreement. Upper riparians do not recognise these agreements. Chapter Six is a must to the reader. It provides a philosophical foundation for the stand taken by the upper riparians of the Nile Basin in discussions on the utilisation of the waters of the Nile. The philosophical standpoint was enunciated by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania in what is referred to as the “Nyerere Doctrine on State Succession”. Simply put, the doctrine does not recognise treaties, agreements, and protocols which were purportedly entered into by colonial powers on their behalf, unless the new nation is of the view that any such agreements, treaties, and protocols are compatible with the status of the independence of the nation and will be in its interest. Discussions on the utilisation of international transboundary waters are steeped in an evolving area of international law. Chapter Seven traces the development of principles which have been a result of discussions by lawyer, diplomats, negotiators, policy facilitators, politicians, policy makers, and decision makers. It takes a combination of inputs and efforts of all these constituents to develop international transboundary water agreements and law. The roadmap in the evolution of principles is traced from discussions which went on to establish the Helsinki Rules. The United Nations was later to expand the Helsinki Rules towards the establishment of international law on shared fresh waters using the International Law Commission. The United Nations Agreement on the Non Navigational Uses of International Transboundary xxvi Waters which has now come into effect is the result of decades of such efforts. Chapter Eight of this book gives a roadmap of efforts, endeavours, expectations, and negotiations that have gone on since independence of upper riparian states, in order to achieve an equitable, fair, durable agreement for the sharing of the waters of the Nile. The writer shares with the reader the deep insights of the complexities in negotiating a water sharing agreement. This Chapter is about the River Nile Cooperative Framework Agreement. Disputes arising in international water utilisation do spur on discussions that ultimately lead to agreements. Unless the nature of the dispute is known it may be difficult for riparians to accommodate each other’s interests. Chapter Nine of this book is about perceptions of upper riparians of the Nile and how these differ from those of lower riparians. Upper riparians subscribe to the notion that since the waters of the Nile pass through their borders they have a legitimate right to the equitable use of the resource. Lower riparians would like to stick to the principle of prior utilisation as enshrined in the agreement between Great Britain and Egypt and between Egypt and Sudan. The second cluster of disputes fall into what can be described as being political in nature. These are largely internal to the basin states while a few transcend state boundaries. They impact negatively on the development of the basin through non-use of the waters, making it difficult to conclude an agreement for the utilisation of the waters of the Nile. Disputes and misunderstandings notwithstanding, riparians of the Nile Basin have strived to form regional and sub-regional groupings and organisations in order to respond to security, environmental, economic and political dictates. The author of this book submits that these groupings and regional and sub-regional institutions can play a catalytic value in the quest for cooperation in the utilisation of the waters of the Nile. In Chapter Ten these institutions are analysed and assessed. TheNile Basin is one of the major transboundary river basins in the world. Chapter Eleven gives a comparison of the Nile Basin and other major basins, in respect of their physiographic characteristics and drainage. For Africa, this comparison is made through the Southern African Community Protocol on Shared Watercourses. As for Asia, the Indus Valley Agreement between India and
xxvii Pakistan is an excellent example of an enduring cooperation against all political odds. India and Pakistan have been at war three times since independence but the Indus Agreement has survived. Another basin of interest is the Danube River specifically in relation to the dispute between Slovakia andHungary. This case is interesting in two respects. The initial agreement for the development of a water control project was entered into by Hungary and the then Czechoslovakia. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia became the successor state to the agreement. The issue of succession is interesting. Secondly, a dispute arose regarding interpretation of the agreement and unilateral implementation of the project by Hungary. The matter was referred to thePermanent Court of Justice at The Hague. The ruling by the Learned Judges have provided clarifications on principles of international law and have established precedents which are now part of international water law. All riparians of the Nile River have an interest and a stake in the waters of the river. The stakes and interests do vary. It will be wrong to equate Tanzania’s stake or Rwanda’s or Burundi’s or that of the Democratic Republic of Congo to Egypt’s. Without the Nile there is no Egypt. This is manifested in the fact that ninety-seven percent of the inhabitants of Egypt live by the river basin and depend on the river for existence. Egypt is strategically positioned. It is the most populous of the Arabic speaking countries. It links Africa and the Middle East, Mediterranean Europe and Africa and the Middle East and through the Suez Canal, it links Europe, Asia, the Far East, and Eastern and Southern Africa. Egypt is steeped in the rich history of the basin. Egypt has a strong constituent in international and regional institutions and its perspectives on water issues are sought and respected. To Egypt, the waters of the Nile are an issue of national security. A special chapter, Chapter Twelve has been reserved for Egypt in recognition of the aforesaid. South Sudan is a new entrant in the geopolitics of the Nile Basin. Previous to the independence of South Sudan, the Nile Basin comprised of eleven states. As part of Sudan, the southern part was embroiled in a civil war at various times since the year 1955 until it achieved its independence on 9 July 2011. Chapter Thirteen of the book is reserved forSouth Sudan, its war of independence or civil war and the ramifications to the Basin geopolitics. xxviii Water is an important and perhaps the most important resource of the Basin, giving the basin its name. There is no substitute to water. Water is not the only resource of value in the Basin. Other resources depend on water for their extraction and use. Their presence is closely interlinked with the availability of Nile waters. An example of one such resource is groundwater. The ease of access to groundwater may influence utilisation of the Nile waters and thus reduce the possibility of conflicts. An industrial economy in the Basin can influence water use in many respects. It lowers the dependence on agriculture and therefore on water for irrigation, supporting an economy which can depend on embodied water from its imports. Chapter Fourteen surveys other resources obtaining in the Nile River Basin. The writer of this book is of the opinion that by the time the reader concludes Chapter Fourteen he or she will have ample, though not exhaustive, knowledge of the geopolitics of the Basin. Chapter Fifteen is the concluding chapter of this book. It presents in summary form the salient points raised in the book. Before I conclude I wish to caution the reader. Arabic, I understand, is a rich language. Translating Arabic names into English necessarily introduces confusions which the reader may detect. The same name pronounced slightly differently is spelt differently. It is a question of transliterating a language. An example of such complication is the name of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. It is variously referred to as Saad el Aali and Sudd el Aali. The town of Sennar and from which the Sennar Dam derives its name, is sometimes referred to as Sinnar. People’s names are no different. A good example is the Hero of the Revolution which overthrew the Farouk Dynasty in Egypt; Gamal Abdul Nasser is also variously spelt Gamal Abd El Nasser, Gamal Abd el Nasser or Jamal Abd al Nasser. The most revered and most famous name Mohamed is sometimes spelt Mohammed, Mohammad, or Muhammed. The Setit River in Sudan is sometimes pronounced Satit. Likewise, the Roseires Dam is spelt Roseires or Rosaires, and the Merowe Dam, Marawi or Merowe. These differences arise as previously submitted due to transliteration of Arabic names into English. The reader is cautioned not to regard it as a mistake when the names of the same feature or person are spelt differently.
xxix Transboundary Rivers are peculiar in the sense that they may be known by different names depending on the basin state crossed by the river. The famous Blue Nile River is almost unknown to an ordinary Ethiopian unless you refer to it as Abay River. The river is sometimes referred to as the Abbay, or Abai. The Setit River in Sudan is a continuation of the Tekeze or Tekezze River in Ethiopia. Lake Tana is sometimes spelt Tsana or referred to as Ge’ezor Dembiya. Finally comes the grand question; where is the Source du Nil? (Source of the Nile) TheBlue Nile is sourced from the sacred Sekela springs in Ethiopia. The White Nile starts from what were the Ripon Falls at Lake Victoria. The actual source of the White Nile is the Nyabarongo in Rwanda. Controversy surrounds what the source of the White Nile is. Some refer to the segment of the Nile from Lake Victoria to Lake Albert as Victoria Nile, from Lake Albert to the Sudd as Albert Nile and through the Sudd as Bahr el Jebel, with a branch Bahr el Zeraf up until Lake No. These tributaries are joined by the Bahr el Ghazal from the west and the White Nile proper is the output, joined by the Sabot near Malakal from where it drains north to Khartoum where the White Nile and the Blue Nile unite to form the majestic Nile as it traverses the deserts towards Egypt and finally theMediterranean Sea.
xxx Acknowledgements
his book has been written by one person. Yet the book is the result of Tcontributions of a number of people and institutions who and which contributed in the form of information, data, news, and other sources useful in the exercise of writing. It will be mean on my part if I did not acknowledge the assistance. I start with my immediate family. My wife Lucy Akiiki has been an inspiration. I started writing the draft of the Kiswahili version of this book by the side of my hospital bed at the Apollo Health City, Hyderabad, India. Initially I thought she would restrain me from embarking into the venture at that difficult time. She encouraged me to go on. She was the nurse, physiotherapist, therapist, research assistant, and an IT specialist rolled into one. I thank her most sincerely. It is also in order that I should recognise and thank the following persons: Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman of the Apollo Group of Hospitals, Dr Srinivas Chakravarthy Gummaraju, Dr Alok Ranjan, Dr Sanjay Maitra, Dr Fowad Abdul Khalil, Dr I. Subrayulu Reddy, and Mr Radhey Mohan, at Apollo Hospital, Hyderabad; Dr Peter Kisenge, Dr Dorah Lwakatare, and Dr Mohamed Janabi, at Muhimbili National Hospital; Dr Dilantha Ellegala of Centra Lynchburg General Hospital, Virginia, USA; and Dr John Densmore of the University of Virginia Hospital, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. Our children Max, Sekela, and Emmanuel are no longer young anymore. They are our friends and colleagues now. They have contributed a great deal towards the completion of this book. They have assisted in research, writing, references, drawings and cartography, and in the use of information and communication technology, referring to their parents as being born before computers (bbc). They collated the various pages of the various drafts without complaint. I cannot thank them enough. Tusekile and Lusekelo, our dear
xxxi grandchildren, thank you too. The veranda of our houses in Tegeta and Lufilyo were my writing hideouts. Occasionally they would hide my pen and paper so that we could go through stories. In doing so they provided me with the necessary moments to recharge. Once in a while I would also send them away to fetch a reference or two. I thank you. My interest in water affairs and in particular water resource management has everything to do with the positions I was privileged to hold while in public service. I would therefore like to mention two people, among many who made it possible for me to be in that position. In 1990 President Ali Hassan Mwinyi appointed me Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Water, energy and Minerals. President Benjamin William Mkapa appointed me Minister of Communications and Transport in 2000 with the responsibility of oversight of Lake Victoria transport, Lake Victoria being the largest lake in the Nile Basin. In 2006 President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete appointed me Minister of State responsible for environment. Between 2008 and 2012, I had the occasion of serving as Minister responsible for water and irrigation. They exposed me to issues of transboundary waters and rekindled my interest in the Nile Valley and its Basin. I thank them all. The following colleagues, experts and officials are some from whom I have benefited a lot in the course of writing this book. It is well worth to mention them. Washington Mutayoba, Director of Water Resources(retired); Lister Kongola, Assistant Director of Water Resources(retired); Sylvester Matemu, Assistant Director of Water Resources; Mwenyeheri Ndimbo, Assistant Director, Water Planning; Archard Mutalemwa, Director General of the Dar-es-Salaam Water and Sanitation Authority (DAWASA); Haruna Masebu, Director General (retired) of the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA); Felix Ngamlagosi, Director General of EWURA; Prof. John Nkoma, Director General (retired) of the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA); The late Suleiman Said Suleiman, former Director General of the Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA); Clement Kivegalo, Director General of the Kahama Shinyanga Water and Sanitation Authority; Gerson Mdemu, former Clerk to the Cabinet and now Deputy Attorney General; Ngusa Izengo, former Administrator of the Office of the Minister and my immediate past special xxxii assistant; Secretarial staff of the Minister, Rose Wabanhu, Office of the President, and Loice Mwakatundu and Janet Petro, Ministry of Water. I thank them all. My colleagues in the Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania, especially those who steered through the passage of the motion to ratify the agreement for cooperation among the Nile Basin states require mention. Prof. Jumanne Maghembe, Dr Jumanne Kawambwa, Mr Frederick Werema, Prof Peter Msolla, Prof. David Homeli Mwakyusa, Said Nkumba, Cynthia Hilda Ngoye, and Nyambari Chacha Nyangwine. Transboundary waters, by definition are waters that drain a number of basin states and are therefore international in character. My colleague Ministers responsible for water in the Nile basin have been of immense value to me as I endeavoured to lean from their wide knowledge of the basin and their national positions on issues of the Nile River. I recognise and thank the following: Asfaw Dingamo and Alemayehu Tegenu of Ethiopia; Stanslaus Kamanzi of Rwanda; Kamal Ali Mohamed, and Mutaz Musa Abdalla of Sudan; Dr Mohamed Nasr El Din Allam of Egypt; Maria Mutagamba of Uganda; Odette Kayitesi of Burundi; Jose Endundo Bononge of the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Charity Ngilu of Kenya. At the level of international executives I recognise the following people: Teferra Beyene, Executive Director (retired) of the Nile Basin Initiative(NBI); Meraji Msuya, Executive Director of NBI(retired); John Rao Nyaoro, Executive Director of NBI; Jane Baitwa, Communications Specialist, NBI; Raymond Mngodo of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission LVBC; Prof. George Okeyo Khroda of the University of Nairobi; Fred Mwango, Director(retired) of Water Resources, Kenya; Prof. Seifeldin Hamad Abdallah, Advisor to the Minister of Water and Electricity, Sudan; Prof. Salman Mohamed Ahmed Salman of Sudan; Eng. Smegnew Bekele, General Manager of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and all his staff, and the staff of NBI. Thank you. Four people deserve special thanks: Patrick Rutabanzibwa, former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water and Irrigation; Meraji Msuya, former Executive Secretary of NBI; Dr. Asha Rose Migiro, High Commissioner of the United Republic of Tanzania to the Court of St James’s; and Dr Tulia Ackson Mwansasu, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of the United Republic of
xxxiii Tanzania. They went through the manuscript meticulously and provided me with useful advice and counsel. Honourable Salim Ahmed Salim, former Secretary General of the OAU and former Prime Minister of Tanzania officiated the inauguration of the Swahili version of this book: Daraja Juu ya Mto Nile. It was a result of his advice that I expand the readership of the book by translating it into English, French and Arabic that I have partially paid attention to his counsel by coming up with this edition. I thank him most sincerely. The following colleagues and friends deserve mention. Without them perhaps I would not be able to complete authorship of this edition: Hon. Frederick Tluway Sumaye, Ambassador Chirau Ali Mwakwere, Ambassador Juma Mwapachu, Charles Nsekela, Mpeli Nsekela, Yona Sonelo, Joyce Svarvar, Patrick Rutabanzibwa, Prof. Fred Kaijage, Dr Theresa Kaijage, Maria Sarungi Tsehai, and Lingson Mwamsiku Adam. My editor-extraordinaire and publisher, Mama Elieshi Lema, true to her modesty never likes an acknowledgement. Without her encouragement, diligence, and professionalism, and tolerance of my daughter Sekela, the manuscript would never see the light of the day. Thank you. By way of closure of my appreciation, let me reiterate once again that while the author of the book is me and I am responsible for all the shortcomings, I would not have managed to author it without, the help assistance and the advice of the aforementioned and many others. It is not possible to mention all of them. Those who I have acknowledged, I have done so on behalf of those I may have inadvertently skipped.
Mark J. Mwandosya June, 2016
xxxiv 1
About the River Nile
iver Nile, in all its manifestations is long, majestic, gorgeous, awesome, Rmysterious, spiritual and reverend. Throughout the passage of time, the Nile has been an intercourse across cultures, beliefs and religions. Prominent among the religions are those that derive their existence from the Patriarch Abraham. These are the Abrahamic faiths of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Hebrews and Christians hold a strong belief that Abraham was the initiator and founder of the concept deeply embedded in religion, that of a monolithic creator of the universe, the one and only one God. The Holy book of Islam, the Holy Quran does subscribe to the same belief in asserting that Abraham, or Ibrahim was the first believer in Allah. It is widely held that Abraham was born in a town known as Ur. Legend has it that Ur, which does not exist now, could be placed as existing somewhere in south Mesopotamia, or present day Iraq. Through a revelation he was ordered by God to leave Ur, travel westwards to Canaan, the land promised to him and his people. Frail and advanced in age the Patriarch was to heed the order by vacating Ur together with his wife Sarah. Abraham traversed the vast desert north westwards to a town known as Haran, in what is present day Syria or Turkey. His father Terah who had come with him succumbed to death and was buried in Haran. The journey was almost done, but not quite. Abraham had to travel south to Canaan, establishing homesteads in Damascus, Jerusalem, Hebron and Beersheba. Now comes the encounter between Abraham and Egypt (Aigyptos in ancient Greek) and the Nile River. From Canaan, Abraham travelled farther south and was able to reach Egypt, the land of the Nile River, the river and its basin of which is the subject of this book. The encounter between theNile River and Abraham is a manifestation of the importance of the river to religious faiths
1 About the River Nile which transcend human reason, be they Islamic, Judaism or Christian. Many people not of Abrahamic faiths have prayed by the river, have created own gods to worship and give thanks to the river for the fertility of soils and bumper crops, and against hunger, drought and diseases. From time immemorial, the Nile River has been and will continue to be associated with life. Back to Abraham, the Abrahamic faiths and the Nile. Abraham was then of very old age, and so was his wife Sarah. Since they had not begotten a child and had no heir, Sarah proposed that Hajir, an Egyptian maid of theirs bare Abraham a child. The first child was born and was named Ishmael or Ismail. An important detail should not be missed; the arrival of Ishmael, whose mother was Egyptian, therefore of African pedigree is Africa’s contribution to roots of religious faiths. Later and against all odds, at the age of 90 Sarah was to conceive and bear a child with Abraham who was well above 100 years. The child’s name was Isaac. All the Abrahamic faiths agree that God ordered Abraham to give a son as sacrifice, a test in the belief ofGod and as thanksgiving. They differ as to who was to be sacrificed and where the act took place. Jews and Christians believe God ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and that the act took place in Jerusalem, while Muslims believe it was Ishmael who was to be sacrificed in Mecca. What followed is not controversial. Abraham brought the son to the place ordered by God, and was ready to perform the sacrifice, save for a voice of an angel from heaven through whom the Lord acknowledged Abraham’s faith and humility to Him, and instantly a sacrificial lamb appeared and the son was spared. The three Abrahamic religions cross paths again in the River Nile. Jacob was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham, the Patriarch. Joseph was the 11th among the children of Jacob, and the first child to his wife Rachel. Joseph was the golden boy of the family, a matter which engendered hatred from his elder brothers. The brothers conspired to have him killed while overseeing the grazing of the family heard. Two brothers objected to the deal and proposed instead that Joseph be sold as a slave to the passing Egyptian merchants for 20 pieces of money. This they did. To their father Jacob they brought a piece of Joseph’s bloodied clothing alleging he had been killed by wild animals. Upon arrival in Egypt, therefore by the Nile, Joseph was bought by one
2 About the River Nile Potiphar, the head of Pharaoh’s bodyguards. As a slave, Joseph performed extremely well and was soon raised to become comptroller, head administrator of Potiphar’s homestead. Joseph’s good looks attracted the attention of Potiphar’s wife who would try unsuccessfully to seduce him. Potiphar’s wife reported the matter to Potiphar alleging that Joseph wanted to rape her. Joseph defended himself, to no avail. He was thrown into jail. His luck came when and while still in incarceration when he was able to decipher Pharaoh’s dream of seven years of a bumper crop and seven years of famine, through which Egypt was able to serve enough corn to ride over the drought period. The Pharaoh subsequently made him chief of staff or prime minister. A twist of fate and an unusual encounter reunited the family of Jacob, nowhere else but by the River Nile. A prolonged drought had brought Canaanites to Egypt in search of food. Among them were Joseph’s brothers. Little did they know that their brother was alive and, had risen to such a high position. Joseph recognised them and ordered that the entire family including his father be brought to Egypt, by the Nile. Jacob acquiesced in the order but requested that upon his death his body should be sent back to Canaan for burial. Joseph obliged and ordered the children of Israel in Egypt to make sure his remains would also be sent back to Canaan. Moses was to fulfil the promise when he led the exodus of Jews from Egypt to Canaan though the red sea and a forty-year sojourn through the desert. Legend has it that upon his death Joseph was buried by the Nile and so as to fulfil the covenant, Moses mysteriously delivered his remains for interment in Canaan. Moses, the person, the story, and the legend are intertwined into one, the Nile River. The Pharaoh was once advised that in view of the large increase of the population of Jews in Egypt a messiah would arise among them who would lead them into freedom. An order was issued by the Pharaoh that all babies being born should be killed and the remains thrown into the Nile. Suddenly the Nile, instead of being a beacon and a giver of life, becomes a receiver of death! Yet salvation was to evolve out of the situation. Jochebed, the wife of Amram begot for him Miriam, Aaron and Moses. After the order was issued, his sister Miriam placed Moses in the Nile in a special floating bag. On that fateful day
3 About the River Nile Pharaoh’s daughter happened to be swimming in the Nile and noticed the bag with a baby in it. She took the baby to the palace and adopted him. The rise of Moses in the Pharaoh’s palace and Egypt of the Nile, and leading the exodus, receiving the Ten Commandments along the way, and leaving it to Joshua to deliver the Israelites to the land of promise, is well documented in scriptures. Many faiths find unity in the River Nile. The New Testament of the Christian Holy Book, the Bible, is a revelation of the omnipresence of God existing in trinity, the Holy Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In respect of the son, Christians believe that Jesus was sent to Earth to show the way to salvation, and that he acquired a humanly state, was persecuted, died, rose from death and was carried to heaven, waiting for a second return. He was conceived under mysterious circumstances and was born in a manger in Bethlehem. He is the same person who Muslims refer to Prophet Isa ibn Maryam, the last of the prophets. The whole of Palestine with its capital Jerusalem was under the rule of the Roman Empire under Augustus Caesar. Herod ruled the land under the watch of Rome. Apparently Herod was informed of the birth of baby Jesus as one who would be the messiah and king of Israel. Upon receiving the news, he issued an edict that all children under the age of two in and around Bethlehem should be killed. Baby Jesus would naturally fall into that category. Unbeknown to Herod, angels from heaven had already informed Joseph the father and Mary the mother to move out of Bethlehem and go south to the land of the Nile, Egypt, and stay there until further notice. Joseph and Mary obliged and baby Jesus was saved from the wrath of Herod. This act is an illustration of the importance of the Nile as a source of life and a giver of refuge over the ages. Joseph, Mary and Jesus were to stay by the Nile, in Egypt, until they moved back to Palestine, this time to Nazareth in Galilee. Hence the reference to Jesus as Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew: 2). The EgyptianCoptic Church, an orthodox church, is deeply rooted in the teachings of Saint Mark, one of the disciples of Jesus. He is believed to be the founder of the Christian faith in Egypt during the reign of the Roman Empire under Caesar Nero. In 42 AD he founded the first diocese of theOrthodox Church of Alexandria as its first bishop. He was murdered by Roman soldiers
4 About the River Nile during Easter Monday on 8 May 68 AD. The four gospels of the New Testament were written by Matthew, Luke, John, and Mark. Alexandria is at the tip of the Nile Delta. The importance of the Nile to the spread of the Christian gospel cannot be overemphasised. The writer of this book had the privilege of attending a mass at the St Mark Coptic Church Cathedral in Alexandria on Sunday 26 July 2009. At the entrance to the chapel and museum is a tablet with the names of all Archbishops of the Province of Alexandria from St Mark, 42 AD to the present one engraved on it. He was attending the 17th Meeting of the Committee of Ministers of Water of the Nile Basin. The Meeting discussed among other things the draft agreement for cooperation among riparian states of the Nile Basin. Tsegaye Gabre Medhin, a famous Ethiopian scholar and poet once colourfully praised the River Nile thus: “River Nile is the origin of Africa, it is the blood of Ethiopia, and the mother of Cush” (Arsano 2010). And in a famous ancient dictum, a prominent Greek who lived around 450 BC, Herodotus had this to say about Egypt, its civilisation, and the Nile: “Egypt is the gift of the Nile”, a powerful statement which is the cornerstone of the Egyptian psyche regarding the Nile. The word Nile emanates from the ancient Greek word “Neilos” taken from the Greek god of Nile waters.
Image 2: The El Bashier (Shandi El Matama) Bridge, Sudan (Courtesy of DIU)
The Nile is the longest river in the world. For a very long time the source of the Nile was believed to be at the Ripon Falls, Lake Victoria in Uganda. The Nile 5 About the River Nile has numerous tributaries and as such each source of a tributary of the Nile is a source of the Nile. The source that is the longest distance upstream of the Nile Delta and the Mediterranean Sea is therefore considered to be the main source of the river. In that regard therefore the springs that are the source of the Nyabarongo in Rwanda are considered to be the main source of the Nile, with the river traversing 6718 kilometres from the source, through the Nyabarongo, the Akagera, the Kagera, Lake Victoria, Victoria Nile, Albert Nile, Bahr el Jebel, Bahr el Ghazal, White Nile and Nile proper, onwards to the Mediterranean Sea. The race is open for the longest river on Earth. For in 2007, a group of researchers announced they had discovered another tributary of the Amazon River in Peru which gave the length of the river 6800 kilometres (Swain 2011). TheRiver Nile Basin is comprised of parts of eleven nation states of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt, draining an area of 3.18 million square kilometres. This area is 10 percent of the area of the continent of Africa, and a mere 2.3 percent of area of the whole world. A minute area, 0.04 percent of the Nile Basin, is in the Central African Republic. The population of the Basin states is close to 424 million, which is 41 percent of Africa’s population. Ethiopia is the most populated of all the countries, with 86.5 million people. Egypt follows with 83.9 million, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo with a population of 69.6 million. Eritrea, on the other hand, has 5.6 million people, and Burundi’s population is 8.7 million. The statistics reflect those of the year 2010. Out of the 431 million people of the countries of the Nile Basin, 238 million actually reside in the Basin itself. Countries differ as to the concentration of people residing in the Nile Basin, with the highest concentration being in Egypt with 80.4 million people, followed by Uganda with 35.4 million people and Ethiopia with 34.6 million people. In 2010, Egypt had 96 percent of its population residing in the Basin while Ethiopia had 40 percent of its population occupying the Nile Basin. It is estimated that by the year 2030, the population of the Nile Basin countries will have increased to reach 648 million, of which 132 million will be Ethiopian and 111 million will be Egyptians. This big increase in the population of the Basin countries will necessitate an even larger dependence
6 About the River Nile on the Nile river basin. Ethiopia and Egypt by virtue of their large populations will impact the basin even more than other riparians. All riparians depend on the Nile for their social and economic development. A new paradigm based on cooperation and mutual benefit among the riparians is required in order to minimise disputes that will necessarily arise in the sharing of what will continue to be an even scarcer resource as the population continues to increase, environmental degradation continues and the impact of climate change manifests itself.
State Area State Basin State Basin Area State Basin Area Basin State (square Area (square as a % of State as a % of Total kilometres) kilometres) Area Basin Area Burundi 28,062 13860 49.4 0.4 DR Congo 2,401,941 21796 0.9 0.7 Eritrea 121,722 25697 21.1 0.8 Ethiopia 1,144,035 365318 31.9 11.5 Kenya 593,116 51363 8.7 1.6 Egypt 996,960 302452 30.3 9.5 Sudan 1864049 1396230 74.9 44.0 South Sudan 635150 620626 97.7 19.5 Tanzania 933,566 118507 12.7 3.7 Uganda 241,248 240067 99.5 7.6 Rwanda 24,550 20625 84.0 0.6
Table 1: Nile Basin State Areas and State Basin Areas (Source: NBI 2012)
7 About the River Nile Map 1: Nile River Basin (Source: NBI)
8 About the River Nile Map 2: Nile River Basin States (Source: NBI)
Population in 2010 % of Population in Population estimate Basin State (million) Basin in 2030 (million) Burundi 8.7 58.8 12 DR Congo 69.6 3.8 109 Eritrea 5.6 37.6 8 9 About the River Nile Ethiopia 86.5 40.3 132 Kenya 42.7 39.7 63 Egypt 84.0 95.7 111 Rwanda 11.2 82.6 16 Sudan 36.1 87.3 61 South Sudan 9.6 99.0 Tanzania 44.0 21.5 75 Uganda 35.6 99.4 61
Table 2: Population of the Nile River Basin (Source: NBI 2012)
TheNile River and its basin is perhaps the most researched river on Earth. This is partly because of the existence of records even before 3000 BC. Data concerning the depth of the river, floods, and droughts are vivid as records on buildings along the Nile in Egypt, and on ancient temple walls. Even more reliable data and records have been obtained from an instrument, a meter that was used by Egyptians to measure and keep records of the flow of the Nile. The Roda Nilometer takes its name from Roda, an island in the River Nile near Cairo. Records of the river flow from the Roda Nilometer are available continuously from 641 AD.
Image 3: Nile River at Aswan, Egypt (Source: Yomiri Shimbun http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001279538)
10 About the River Nile Precipitation in the River Nile Basin Precipitation is the source of over-ground and underground water. Precipitation is what makes the Nile exist and sustain itself water-wise. Floods, which are a regular occurrence in the basin, while at times destructive, have transported rich alluvial soils from upstream to downstream and have been a major source of production, and the accompanying knowledge and civilisation in the lower lands. Floods have sustained life in the basin for millennia. As would be expected of a river traversing 6000 kilometres from south to north, with a source in the equatorial zone at over 1000 metres above sea level to the Mediterranean Sea, the amount of precipitation varies considerably in amount, duration and timing as one traverses from the north to south. Records of annual rainfall show precipitation of 0-10 mm in Egypt and over 2000 mm in the equatorial great lakes. The Lake Victoria Basin experiences more or less two patterns of precipitation per annum. One such season begins in March to April and another from September to December. The western highlands of Ethiopia, eastern Sudan and South Sudan experience one season only of rainfall per year, anywhere between two to six months for different periods between March and December. The Lake Victoria Basin area receives an average of over 1000 mm of rain per year. The highlands of Rwanda and Burundi which are part of the Lake Victoria Basin, receive an annual precipitation of well over 1800 mm. The Akagera or Kagera River, an important tributary of the Nile, drains these highlands. The confluence of the Kagera River and the Ngono River records the highest rainfall in the basin, with precipitation exceeding 2000 mm annually. The meteorological authorities ofUganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, working in conjunction with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) have determined that the precipitation over Lake Victoria is 1600 mm annually and almost the same amount is lost as evaporation over the same area. The floodplains of Bahr el Ghazal in North West of South Sudan and south west of the Sudan are extensive. They drain the rivers of Na’am, Gel, Tonj, Jur and Lol in an area that receives precipitation between October and December, and ranging from 1200 mm to 1400 mm annually. These rivers are sourced in
11 About the River Nile the highlands which are the watershed separating the River Congo and Nile River basins in borders between South Sudan, Sudan and the Central African Republic. Needless to emphasise, not much of the water from these sources drains into the Nile proper. Evapo-transpiration results into loss of water in the marshes and wetlands of the Bahr el Ghazal plains, which receives precipitation of an average of 800 mm to 1000 mm annually. Another area in the Sudan and South Sudan whose loss of the Nile waters is significant due to evaporation and evapo-transpiration is the wetland area of Machar in the south of the Sudan and the north east of South Sudan. The Machar marshes drain the Sobat, Yabas and the Daga Rivers, with the latter draining directly into the Machar plains. The Sobat confluences the combination of the Bahr el Ghazal and the Bahr el Jebel and Bahr el Zeraf near Malakal from which the Nile flows north as theWhite Nile. As previously stated, some scholars place the Lake No in Sudan, as the beginning of the White Nile while others place the Owen Falls as the beginning of the White Nile. The Machar plains record an annual rainfall of around 750 mm per annum. The area from Malakal to Khartoum receives scant though at times flash floods. Its contribution to the waters of the Nile per year is not that significant. Khartoum, New Khartoum and Omdurman are places of confluence of theBlue Nile and the White Nile, with the Nile flowing north to Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. By and large this area is a desert and thus does not contribute in any measure to the waters of the Nile. The areas of northern Uganda and South Sudan receive rainfall between April and October (NBI 2012; Sutcliffe and Lazenby 1994).
12 About the River Nile Map 3: Total Rainfall in the Nile Basin 1960-90 (Courtesy of NBI)
Average Contribution to Average River Source Nile over the Year (%) Contribution (%) Blue Nile Ethiopia 59 68 Sobat Ethiopia 14 5 Atbara Ethiopia 13 22 Sub Total 86 95 Bahr e Jebel Equatorial Great Lakes 14 5 Grand Total 100 100
Table 3: Contribution of Tributaries to the Nile River (Source: Waterbury 1982)
13 About the River Nile Tributaries of the Nile from the western Ethiopian mountains have water for a period of six months in a year. The rest of the year they remain like gorges with a number of deep ponds traversing the flow of the river during the rainy period. That notwithstanding, the western Ethiopian Highlands, for the months that precipitation occurs, contribute the largest share of the waters of the Nile in any one year, 86 percent to be precise. A mere 14 percent is the contribution of the equatorial great lakes area through the White Nile. This contribution is considerable in the sense that the flow is continuous all year round, giving the Nile its character, utility and part navigability. Without the constant flow of the White Nile there would not have been a Nile civilisation with the character and fame as is known today. The Nile would be full of water for four to six months in a year and the rest of the time it would be a useless long gorge. For ease of understanding, the Nile water basin system can be divided into two parts thus; the upper or southern part of the Nile Basin, and the lower or northern part of the Basin. The equatorial great lakes region of the Nile which includes Lake Victoria, Lake Kyoga, Lake Edward, and Lake Albert, drain 26.5 billion cubic metres of water into the Nile system. The total drainage of the flood plains, marshes and wetlands of the Sudd which includes the Bahr el Ghazal, the Bahr el Jebel and Bahr el Zeraf drain a total of 45.9 billion cubic metres of water, with the Bahr el Jebel contributing 31.5 billion cubic metres. Much of the water is however lost to evaporation and evapo-transpiration such that the output of the Sudd contributes 15 billion cubic metres. As this output confluence the Sobat River whose output is 13.5 billion cubic metres, the White Nile from Malakal to Khartoum, a distance of 800 kilometres, contributes 28.5 billion cubic metres to the Nile water system. The Blue Nile and its main tributaries River Rahab and River Dinder contributed 54 billion cubic metres of water per year into the Nile system. The Blue Nile and the White Nile confluence in Khartoum, from where the Nile proper flows north collecting additional waters from River Atbara (Tekeze) some 300 kilometres from Khartoum. From the junction of the Atbara River to Lake Nubia/Lake Nasser, a distance of 1200 kilometres, the Nile flows with 94.5 billion cubic metres per year. The loss of water due to evaporation between Khartoum and Lake Nubia is estimated to be 0.5 billion cubic metres. An
14 About the River Nile even larger loss is recorded at the vast lake Nubia/ Nasser of 10 billion cubic metres of water per annum. An average of 84 billion cubic metres of water per annum, measured at the Aswan Dam, drains north into the Delta and the Mediterranean Sea. (Hewett and Knott 1994; Swain 2011).
Image 4: The Blue Nile (left) meets theWhite Nile (right) at Khartoum to form the Nile (Courtesy of Lucy Mwandosya)
EVAP – Evaporation
ASWAN HIGH PRECIP –Precipitation
3 LAKE m – One billion cubic NASSER / 10 m3 metres per annum NUBIA (EVAP)
3 0.5m3 12 m (EVAP) 3 4m RIVER RIHAD AND RIVER DINDER 3 3 3 54 m 50 m 3.8m LAKE RIVER BLUE NILE (ABAY ) TANA 3 13 m RIVER BARO 6m3 1m3 (EVAP) 13 .5m3 RIVER (FLOODS) SOBAT RIVER PIBOR
FROM 3 BAHR EL 11 .3m THE SUDD 30 .9m3 GHAZAL WETLANDS (EVAP)
FROM 3.3m3 MAGHARIBI BAHR EL JEBEL 4.8m3 (PRECIP)
3 3.0m3 100m (PRECIP) (PRECIP)
3 3 3 23 .5m 3 6.5m LAKE 22 .5m LAKE LAKE 18 .5m ALBERT KYOGA VICTORIA (RIVERS)
2.5m3 3 4m 3 (EVAP) (EVAP) 94 .5m (EVAP) Figure 1: Water Balance Scheme of the Nile River Basin (Adapted from Waterbury 1979) 15 About the River Nile Rosetta Damietta D - Dam B - Barrage B.Edfina B.Faraskul R - River B.Zita C - Canal B.Delta
B.Nag Hamad B.Esna
Aswan Aswan High /Saad el Aali EGYPT C.Toshka Lake Nasser /Nubia EGYPT SUDAN SUDAN
D.Merowe D.Khasm el Girba
R.Atbara
Lake Khartoum Tana R.Blue Nile
D.Jebel al D.Sennar B.Gerd Auliya
D.Roseires SUDAN SUDAN ETHIOPIA R.Bahr el Ghazal R.Sobat SOUTH R.Bahr el Jebel SUDAN C. Jonglei SOUTH Bor SUDAN Juba UGANDA KENYA Lake Albert Lake Kyoga TANZANIA Lake R.Semliki R.Kagera Victoria Lake Edward
Figure 2: The Scheme of Rivers, Dams and Lakes in the Nile River Basin (Adapted from Waterbury 1979)
Water Resources in the Equatorial Great Lakes Region The Lake Victoria Basin occupies an area of 250,000 square kilometres. Of these, the lake itself occupies an area of 68,000 square kilometres. Lake Victoria is at an elevation of 1340 metres above sea level. The area is such that 44 percent is in Tanzania. Uganda contributes 40 percent and Kenya contributes 6 percent of the lake area. Lake Victoria is one of the largest freshwater lake in the world, being only second to Lake Superior in North America. The longest distance across the lake is 337 kilometres and the widest distance across is 250 kilometres. It is a relatively shallow lake with the deepest point at 84 metres. The Lake is the largest storage in theNile Basin holding an average of 2750 billion cubic metres.
16 About the River Nile Tributaries of the Nile that empty into Lake Victoria from Kenya include Magori, Moguai, Sondu Miriu, Nyando, Yala, Nzoia, and Sio. From Tanzania tributaries include Isanga, Biharamulo, Magogo, Maome, Simiyu, Grumeti, Mara and Kagera. The Kagera River originates from Burundi and Rwanda as part of the Nile Basin. The Ruvyironza, Mubarazi, and Nduruma in Burundi are tributaries of the Ruvubu River which joins the Kagera River a short distance upstream of the Rusumo Falls. It is estimated that Burundi contributes 2.6 billion cubic metres of water per annum to the Kagera River. The Akanyaru River straddles the border between Rwanda and Burundi. The river merges with the Nyabarongo River which enters and exits Lake Rugwaro before joining the Akagera River forming the border between Rwanda and Burundi. From the Rusumo Falls the Kagera River flows north eastwards forming the border between Rwanda and Tanzania, and east wards forming the border between Uganda and Tanzania, entering Lake Victoria on the Tanzanian side. It is estimated that Rwanda contributes 5 billion cubic metres of water to Nile system. TheKagera River Basin occupies an area of 58,370 square kilometres. The river drains into Lake Victoria at a rate of 184 cubic metres per second. From Lake Victoria at the Owen Falls the Victoria Nile begins its northwards flow at a rate of 600 cubic metres per second on toLake Kyoga. Lake Kyoga occupies an area of 1720 square kilometres, a shallow lake of 4 metres deep and a length of 200 kilometres. From Lake Kyoga the Victoria Nile traverses westwards entering Lake Albert at the north eastern edge of the Lake. Three of the equatorial great lakes are in the western arm of the Eastern African Great Rift system. These areLake Albert, Lake Edward, and Lake George. Lake George occupies an area of 250 square kilometres and has an average depth of 2.4 metres. It is connected to Lake Edward by the Kazinga River. Lake Edward is 77 kilometres in length, is widest at 40 kilometres. The Lake occupies an area of 2325 square kilometres. It is 912 metres above sea level and has an average depth of 17m, storing an average of 39.5 billion cubic metres of Nile waters. The Semuliki River, joins Lake Edward and Lake Albert. A larger distance of the Semuliki River is in the DRC and in part forms the border between the DRC and Uganda.
17 About the River Nile Lake Albert is 160 kilometres in length and is 30 kilometres at the widest. It occupies an area of 5300 square kilometres and is 25 metres deep on average. Its storage capacity is 132 billion cubic metres of water. It is 615 metres above sea level. Characteristic of the rift valley lakes, Lake Albert has only one outlet, the Albert Nile, from which the Nile flows north to Nimule at the border with South Sudan and beyond.
The Nile in the Sudd in South Sudan From Nimule at the border between Uganda and South Sudan, the Albert Nile is known as the Bahr el Jebel. The river passes through Juba, the capital of South Sudan, northwards through one of the most characteristic features of the Basin, the lowlands, marshlands and a vast expanse of wetlands known as the Sudd. At a small lake, Lake No, the Bahr el Jebel meets the Bahr el Ghazal. At least 300 kilometres before, and to the south, of Lake No, a north eastern branch of the Bahr el Ghazal branches north east to join the Bahr el Jebel at Lake No. This Branch is theBahr el Zeraf. TheBahr el Ghazal is a confluence of the rivers Bahr el Arab, Lol, Pongo and Jul and other streams and rivers that are sourced in the watershed between the River Congo Basin and the Nile Basin. The outflow from Lake No eastwards is in literature referred to variously as the Bahr el Jebel, the Bahr el Ghazal or the White Nile and it joins the Sobat river near Malakal starting its journey north to Khartoum as the White Nile proper. TheSudd is an important area as a wetland of national and international importance, and is so classified in the Ramsar Convention. It is of immense value to the ecology and climate of the region, an important natural filter of waters of the Nile. The name Sudd is a derivation from an Arabic word that means an obstruction, it was given to this area because it was difficult to navigate the river in many changing formations and mud, sand, silt and heavy vegetation especially between Malakal and Bor in South Sudan.
18 About the River Nile Image 5: The Sudd Wetlands of South Sudan (Source: www.getintravel.com)
The wider Sudd includes the marshlands of Bahr el Ghazal, Bahr el Jebel, Bahr el Zeraf, the Machar, and the confluence of the Baro, the Pibor and Akobo rivers. TheSudd is a natural regulator of the flow of the river Nile. It is the Sudd which in effect regulates the waters which give the Nile its character and existence, the continuous flow of the Nile throughout the year and at a constant rate. The loss of water due to evaporation and trans-evaporation is considerably high. It is estimated that of all the water passing through the Sudd, only 50 percent exists as output. Measured at Mongalla in South Sudan, the river Nile pours 33 billion cubic metres of water into the Sudd per annum. The output from the Sudd measured at Malakal is 16 billion cubic metres. This 50 percent loss is a considerable 20 percent loss of the waters of the Nile as measured at Aswan. The area of the Sudd expands and contracts depending on the season of the year. It is estimated on average to be 16,931 square kilometres. During the rainy season in the great lakes and in the Sudd itself, the area expands to twice its average value. During the dry season the Sudd area diminishes. It is during this period that small islands crop out of the Sudd and are used as temporary settlements and for farming and grazing. These areas are known as the “Toich” (Collins 1994; Sutcliffe and Lazenby 1994; and NBI 2012).
Eastern Nile River Sub Basin The sub-basin of Eastern Nile comprises of the Baro and Akobo and Pibor drainage areas. The Pibor drains into the Sobat River, which joins the Bahr
19 About the River Nile el Ghazal near Malakal to form the White Nile. The Rahad and Dinder rivers drain into the Blue Nile or Abay in Amharic language, and is identified as the Blue Nile until it reaches Khartoum, joining the White Nile to form the Nile as it edges northwards. Another sub-basin of the Nile Basin is the Atbara or the Tekeze river basin river basin. The Atbara joins the Nile 320 kilometres north of Khartoum. The sacred Sekela springs which are the source of the Little (Gilgel) Abay, which drains into Lake Tana or Tsana, are in effect the source of theAbay, the Blue Nile. TheAbay proper exits Lake Tana near Bahr Dar, the capital of Amhara Province. Of all the Nile river tributaries, the Blue Nile is the largest contributor to the Nile waters system. All the aforementioned rivers which form the Eastern Nile sub-basin have their sources in western highlands of Ethiopia.
Image 6: The Sekela Springs, source of the Blue Nile (Abay) (Courtesy of Lucy Mwandosya)
Image 7: Home of the Sekela Springs Mark and Lucy Mwandosya with the inhabitants of Gish Abay (Courtesy of Lucy Mwandosya)
20 About the River Nile Image 8: Lake Tana at Bahr Dar, Amhara, Ethiopia (Courtesy of Lucy Mwandosya)
Image 9: Tis Abay Falls, Blue Nile River, Ethiopia (Courtesy of Lucy Mwandosya)
Lake Tana is located in the north western part of Ethiopia. It is the largest storage of the Nile waters in the eastern sub-basin, with a capacity of storage of 29 billion cubic metres. Lake Tana occupies an area of 3,673 square kilometres. It is 14 metres at its deepest and its elevation is 1,788 metres above sea level (Chebud 2010). Lake Tana contributes about 4 billion cubic metres of water into the Blue Nile per annum. TheBlue Nile (Abay) contributes 50 billion cubic metres of water into the Nile system before it meets the Dinder and the Rihad as it traverses north westwards to Khartoum to join the White Nile. On joining the White Nile, the Blue Nile empties nearly 54 billion cubic metres of water per year. The rivers Dinder and Rahad have their sources in the north western highlands of Ethiopia. The Atbara (Tekeze) starts in the north-western highlands of Ethiopia, about 50 kilometres north of Lake Tana and drains 11.7 billion cubic metres of
21 About the River Nile water into the Nile, 320 kilometres north of Khartoum and 805 kilometres from the source. Significant though the Atbara may be, its contribution is between July and November only; for the remaining part of the year it is a dry river bed.
Image 10: Blue Nile River at Tis Abay, Amhara, Ethiopia (Courtesy of Lucy Mwandosya)
As the Sobat River joins the Bahr el Ghazal near Malakal, its contribution to the waters of the Nile is 13.7 billion cubic metres per annum (Sutcliffe and Lazenby 1994). Rivers which are sourced in the Ethiopian highlands are seasonal in their flow. In contrast rivers which originate in the equatorial great lakes have a much smaller contribution water wise but their flow is constant throughout the year, giving the Nile its character as a source of civilisation. The Lower Downstream Nile Sub Basin Beyond the junction of the Atbara and the Nile, the Nile flows north via the man-made lake Nubia/Nasser into Egypt. As a sub-basin this area is desert. Cairo receives a mere 10 mm of rain per annum. The Nile forms the Delta before draining into the Mediterranean Sea through its two main branches, the Rosetta (Rashid) and the Damietta (Dumyat) each of a distance of 240 kilometres to the Mediterranean Sea. Between Khartoum and Lake Nubia/ Nasser the loss to evaporation is half a billion cubic metres while measured at Aswan the loss due to evaporation, and seepage at the Aswan High is 10 billion cubic metres per annum. Climate Variability and Climate Change in the Nile River Basin The Nile River Basin receives its precipitation from two main sources; the Ethiopian Highlands and the equatorial great lakes region. The rains have
22 About the River Nile over the years been exhibiting variability in quantity and duration because of variability and change of climate in the region. This variability and change of climate is due to a number of factors that include; changes in the rotation of the Earth’s axis, changes in the ocean temperatures, variations of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), and loss of forest cover in the Basin. To illustrate this point, we take the changes in the throughput of the Nile waters that have taken place and measured at Aswan in Egypt over the last century. Measured in 1916 the throughput was a peak of 120 billion cubic metres. The year 1984 was the year of extreme drought in Ethiopia. A mere 42 billion cubic metres of water throughput was recorded at Aswan for that year. The average of the throughput measured at Aswan between the year 1900 and 1956 was 84 billion cubic metres, a figure that is usually taken as the Basin average. The decade between 1977 and 1987 saw a decline of this average to 72 billion per annum (Hulme 1994). As previously noted, the average of the water flowing north from Aswan is taken to be 84 billion cubic metres. This is the average for the years 1900 and 1956 as recorded at Aswan. Overall records show a general increase in the amount of water in the Basin. For example, the average amount of water passing through Aswan between 1961 and 2012 was 109 billion cubic metres and that average between 1900 and 2012 was 91 billion cubic metres. Figure 3 illustrates the variations in the amount of discharge as measured at Aswan.
140 124 123 126 117 115 120 110 109 104 100 90 91 84 80
60
40
20
0 One billiion cubic metres per annum
Period/Year Figure 3: Average Annual Flow of the Nile River at Aswan
23 About the River Nile Research on the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the variability of rainfall in the Nile Basin has shown that during the years of the El Niño phenomenon, there is usually an increase in average rainfall of between 5 and 15 percent. During the La Niña phenomenon the drop can be as much as 10 to 25 percent. The El Niño and La Niña events regularly occur between 4 and 8 years. The 1998 El Niño event witnessed an average increase of 8 percent of waters of the Nile occasioned by an average rainfall increase of 13 percent across the Basin (Hulme 1994). Rainfall levels in the Nile Basin vary from 0 to 2000mm, from the desert region in the lower Nile Basin of Sudan, and the Highlands of Ethiopia and the great lakes region respectively. Sudan experiences short rains of up to 2 months, and it rains on average six months from June to December in Ethiopia. The Victoria Basin has two patterns of rainfall with short rains between November and December and long rains between March and May (Sutcliffe and Lazenby 1994). The impacts of climate change take long to be discerned. Climate change, a long term effect, is a result of temperature increase due mainly to an increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. Heat rays from the sun are reflected back from the atmosphere in such a way as to increase the temperature of the Earth over a long period of time. The increase in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide is due to the growth of industrial sectors and transportation since the industrial revolution in Europe, Japan and the United States over two centuries ago. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is estimated to have increased from 280 parts per million to 396 parts per million since then. As a consequence, the global atmospheric temperatures have averaged an increase of 0.8° C. This increase in greenhouse gas concentration and the consequent increase in temperature is mainly a contribution of the developed countries if past and current emissions are taken into account. That said, the contribution of the Nile Basin states, to greenhouse gas concentration globally are insignificant. The impacts of climate change are however being felt more and will be severe in developing countries, Nile Basin states included. The negative impacts of climate change on Nile Basin states include, among others, the following: i. Loss of water due to surface evaporation ii. Loss of water due to evapo-transpiration
24 About the River Nile iii. Increase in water demand for crops iv. Extended periods of drought and dry periods v. Increase of incidences of floods in some areas vi. Loss of Mediterranean coastal lands due to rise in sea level vii. Inundation of salt water into the agriculturally rich Nile Delta with the consequent negative impacts on agriculture viii. Increase in the incidence of water borne diseases in highland areas due to increased precipitation and temperature; diseases like cholera, dysentery, and malaria. It is estimated that a sea level rise of one metre will negatively impact the Nile Delta in such that a loss of 4,500 arable land will result and 6 million people will have to be resettled. The sea level has been rising by an average of 1.7 mm per century. The amount of greenhouse gases, or carbon dioxide to be more specific, which is generated and released to the atmosphere in the Nile Basin, is insignificant. Reduction of greenhouse gas emission cannot be a main priority in the strategy to minimise the impacts of climate change. Since climate change is inevitable and its effects are being felt now, the priority of Basin states should be in building capacity to adapt. It is widely accepted that if the generation of greenhouse gases would continue at the present rate, then a rise in temperature of 2°Centigrade and a concentration in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases (GHGs) of 450 parts per million could be inevitable. This outlook strengthens the inevitability of putting more emphasis on adaptation to climate change in order to minimise the impacts of prolonged droughts, and incidences of floods. Climate change will also lead to prolonged precipitation in some parts, sea level rise and the inundation of coastal lands and infrastructure, and incidences of forest fires.Agriculture will also be impacted. Changes in weather patterns will necessitate changes in crop types and the need to put more resources into agronomy. The effects ofclimate change are being felt now, more visibly in island states, and the Nile Basin is no exception. This is the time for the Basin community and states to take the necessary measures to counter the challenges of climate change, with adaptation being in the fore. Nile Basin states are by all accounts poor. The majority fall into the category of those that are listed by global financial
25 About the River Nile institutions as least developing countries. Poverty elimination will continue to be the priority for these countries. In order to meet this challenge on top of that of climate change, it is therefore important that planners in Nile Basin states mainstream climate change in their development plans. By doing so it is possible for nation states to build a community that is resilient to climate change such that it may not be necessary to take drastic and emergency measures to counter the effects ofclimate change. For example, climate change has to be factored in infrastructure construction. Building capacity at society level in order to understand climate and create resilience to climate change is an important strategy. This knowledge can be imparted usefully only when basin states have national plans to counter the effects of climate change and in those plans public education and information on climate change is given the priority it deserves. Capacity building should go hand in hand with creating a cadre of experts for the analysis of data, research results, and scientific information. Construction of weather and climate stations, hydrological and hydrological stations and maintenance of these where they exist is an essential element of any strategy to mainstream climate change in national plans. In this regard it is worthwhile to note that the lower riparians of the Nile basin, Egypt and Sudan, have over the years built strong technical capacities and knowledge in water management such that other basin states could benefit from cooperation with these two Nile states. The Framework Agreement for Cooperation in the Nile Basin provides a good entry point for cooperation in climate change policies, plans and strategies. Water is the main input into agriculture. Climate change will affect this sector in terms of the amount, duration and spatial distribution of rainfall. Irrigation agriculture is by definition water intensive. Increasing the efficiency of water utilisation is a useful strategy in water management for agriculture. The concept and clarion call should be “more crop per a smaller drop of water” instead of “more crop per drop of water”. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economies of the Nile Basin states and the communities within the states, a majority of whom live in rural areas. It is the population living in rural areas which will be negatively affected by climate change and is being affected by climate variability. This as shown above
26 About the River Nile is manifested in changes in patterns and intensity of rainfall. These variations necessitate farmers to change planting habits and crop varieties. For example, should a rainy period be predicted to be short, farmers are advised to move from planting maize which is a water intensive and sensitive crop to more resilient crops such as sorghum, millet and cassava. This is in a way a strategy for adaptation in order to minimise the impacts of climate change. By and large, developed countries have contributed much to the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions over the last 300 years. The present state of affairs is due to their historic emissions. Developed nations have the wherewithal to combat the rise of these concentrations be it through financing or technology. What they lack is the will to effect mitigation measures and to effect a change in lifestyle patterns.
The United Nations Framework Convention and and its Kyoto Protocol Business as usual cannot be taken as a norm. It is necessary to adhere to the precautionary principle, that lack of conclusive knowledge about climate change cannot be an excuse not to take action now. It is incumbent upon the present generation to bequests the generations to come, a world that is a better place to live than it is now. This is the cornerstone of the Framework Convention on Climate Change which was signed by Heads of State at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 (UNFCCC 1992). A legal instrument to kick-start the implementation of the Framework Convention was the Kyoto Protocol which was adopted in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997. The writer of this book was honoured to be the leader of the Group of 77 and the spokesperson of the Group of 77 and China during the negotiations which led to the Kyoto Protocol. Through the Kyoto Protocol developed countries were required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a sultry 5.2 percent of their 1990 emission levels by the year 2012. The Protocol envisaged that by the year 2012, a new agreement would have been reached to strengthen the Kyoto Protocol or to have a new protocol/agreement to replace the Protocol, the aim being to reduce the rate of increase of greenhouse gases to a level that would be sustainable. Discussions and negotiations for a new dispensation have gone on beyond
27 About the River Nile 2012 such that the Paris Agreement was unanimously adopted at COP 21 in Paris on 11 December, 2015 (Mwandosya 1999; NBI 2012; UNFCCC 1997). The main principle enshrined in the UNFCCC is that which recognises the varying abilities of nation states to mitigate climate change, and to adapt, as well as the contribution of parties to the Convention to historic and present emissions. This is the principle of equal but differentiated responsibilities. Developed countries who are responsible for 300 years of historic emissions have a responsibility to assist developing countries as they struggle to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change through the provision of finance and technology transfer. A number of facilities have been established in order to support developing countries implement the UNFCCC. Among them is the Adaptation Fund. The World Bank and other financial institutions have established climate change facilities and windows for adaptation to, and mitigation of, climate change. Another facility that has been established is the Global Environment Facility. It is estimated that financing for adaptation toclimate change will require US dollars 1.5 trillion per year by the year 2030. At a glance, this figure might appear high but the damage to planet Earth for the option of doing nothing is even higher. Needless to say the figure is within the realm of possibility of developed countries to afford.
The Paris Agreement TheKyoto Protocol has been in every respect a good starting point in nations taking responsibility to at least start taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus setting targets and time frames on the basis of common but differentiated responsibilities. Historical responsibility was the basis of and fell neatly with the differentiation of countries into developing and developed countries and among the developed country parties into Annex I and Annex II countries. The responsibility was for the developed countries to reduce their overall emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008 to 2015. Each such a country was supposed to have made demonstrable progress in achieving its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol. TheKyoto Protocol, the second legal instrument after the UNFCCC while successfully negotiated and adopted ran into difficulties during the ratification and implementation stages from a few but powerful Annex I countries, notably
28 About the River Nile the United States, Canada, and Australia. There are three reasons, among others, which prompted these countries in particular, to take a tough stand against the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. First and foremost, was pure national interest in the sense that it was perceived that implementation of the Protocol would lead to an economic burden they were not prepared to carry. Second and coupled to the first reason was political risk they were not prepared then to carry. The oil and coal lobbies were vocal, powerful and influential in the capitals of these states. One should not ignore the power and influence of the global warming science sceptics. Third, and this was clear right from the start of the negotiations for the Protocol, developed countries had sought, without success, the participation of a few developing countries, notably China, India, and Brazil in quantified emission limitation or reduction. As the end of First Commitment Period for the Kyoto Protocol was nearing its end, COP 17 of the UNFCCC meeting in Durban, South Africa, 28 November to 9 December 2011, was crucial. The meeting decided on two significant issues. First, the COP serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol, agreed to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol from 2013 to 2020. This would give time for Parties to decide on what legal instrument would replace the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2020 and bind countries to probably an even higher level of ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In this regard, COP 17 decided to launch a process that would develop comprehensive framework for “the widest possible cooperation by all countries and their participation in effective and appropriate international response, with a view to accelerating the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions”. It was clear in Durban that mitigation pledges by the Parties would not be consistent with the requirement to hold the increase in global average temperature below 2 °C or 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels (UNFCCC 2011). Secondly, through Decision 1/COP 17, the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (AWG-DP) was established. The AWG-DP was mandated to work and submit proposals to COP, such that it would complete its work not later than 2015 in order to adopt a “protocol, legal instrument or agreed outcome with legal force at the twenty- first session of the Conference of the Parties and for it to come into effect and be implemented
29 About the River Nile from 2020”. TheDurban Platform for Enhanced Action stressed the need for the process to come up with raised ambitions in order to enhance mitigation efforts and ensure widest participation by the Parties. The Paris Agreement on climate change, unanimously adopted on 12 December 2015 was the culmination of the work of the AWG-DP and the associated negotiations at the Twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties meeting in Paris, France, 30 November to 11 2015. As envisaged in the AWG-DP, the Agreement is an outcome with a legal force under the UNFCCC. TheDurban Platform for Enhanced Action did call for widest participation by the Parties. TheParis Agreement (PA) is applicable to all Parties. Unlike the KP, the PA does not classify Parties in accordance with their level of development. There are no definitions to that effect. The PA goes further than the KP in reminding Parties, when taking action to address climate change, they must take into account their obligation on human rights, the right to health, rights of indigenous people, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity (UNFCCC 2015). All Parties are required to participate effectively in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), in the light of their national circumstances. The synthesis of INDCs should lead to aggregation of the greenhouse gas emissions and the determination of the global emission pathway. The ambition expressed in the PA is for the INDCs and other efforts to result into emissions which lead to the global temperature rise to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts to limit the increase in temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The agreement regarding the inclusion of the lower limit of 1.5°C temperature rise was undoubtedly a hallmark success on the part of small island developing countries. The PA has established the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement to prepare for the entry into force of the Agreement which will be on the thirtieth day after the date on which at least 55 Parties to the Convention accounting for at least an estimated 55 percent of total global emissions of greenhouse gas emissions have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession (UNFCCC 2015; UN 2016).
30 About the River Nile Appendix C:
Agreement on Declaration of Principles between The Arab Republic of Egypt, The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia And The Republic of the Sudan On The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project (GERDP) 23rd March 2015 @ 11:30, Khartoum, Sudan
Preamble Mindful of the rising demand of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Republic of Sudan on their transboundary water resources, and cognizant of the significance of the River Nile as the source of livelihood and the significant resource to the development of the people of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, the three countries have committed to the following principles on the GERD: i. Principle of Cooperation • To cooperate based on common understanding, mutual benefit, good faith, win-win, and principles of international law. • To cooperate in understanding upstream and downstream water needs in its various aspects. ii. Principle of Development, Regional Integration and Sustainability; The purpose of GERD is for power generation, to contribute to economic development, promotion of transboundary cooperation and regional integration through generation of sustainable and reliable clean energy supply.
347 Appendices iii. Principle Not to Cause Significant Harm • The Three Countries shall take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm in utilizing the Blue/Main Nile. • Where significant harm nevertheless is caused to one of the countries, the state whose use causes such harm shall, in the absence of agreement to such use, take all appropriate measures in consultations with the affected state to eliminate or mitigate such harm and, where appropriate, to discuss the question of compensation. iv. Principle of Equitable and Reasonable Utilization The three countries shall utilize their shared water resources in their respective territories in an equitable and reasonable manner. In ensuring their equitable and reasonable utilization, the three countries will take into account all the relevant guiding factors listed below, but not limited to the following outlined: a. Geographic, hydrographic, hydrological, climatic, ecological and other factors of a natural character; b. The social and economic needs of the Basin States concerned; c. The population dependent on the water resources in each Basin State; d. The effects of the use or uses of the water resources in one Basin State on other Basin States; e. Existing and potential uses of the water resources; f. Conservation, protection, development and economy of use of the water resources and the costs of measures taken to that effect; g. The availability of alternatives, of comparable value, to a particular planned or existing use; h. The contribution of each Basin State to the waters of theNile River system; i. The extent and proportion of the drainage area in the territory of each Basin State.
348 Appendices v. Principle to Cooperate on the First Filling and Operation of the Dam To implement the recommendations of the International Panel of Experts (IPOE), respect the final outcomes of the Technical National Committee (TNC) Final Report on the joint studies recommended in the IPOE Final Report throughout the different phases of the project. The three countries, in the spirit of cooperation, will utilize the final outcomes of the joint studies, to be conducted as per the recommendations of the IPoE Report and agreed upon by the TNC, to:- a) Agree on guidelines and rules on the first filling ofGERD which shall cover all different scenarios, in parallel with the construction of GERD. b) Agree on guidelines and rules for the annual operation of GERD, which the owner of the dam may adjust from time to time. c) Inform the downstream countries of any unforeseen or urgent circumstances requiring adjustments in the operation of GERD. To sustain cooperation and coordination on the annual operation of GERD with downstream reservoirs, the three countries, through the line ministries responsible for water, shall set up an appropriate coordination mechanism among them. The time line for conducting the above mentioned process shall be 15 months from the inception of the two studies recommended by the IPoE. vi. Principle of Confidence Building Priority will be given to downstream countries to purchase power generated from GERD. vii. Principle of Exchange of Information and Data Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan shall provide data and information needed for the conduct of the TNC joint studies in good faith and in a timely manner.
349 Appendices viii. Principle of Dam Safety • The three countries appreciate the efforts undertaken thus far by Ethiopia in implementing the IPoE recommendations pertinent to the GERD safety. • Ethiopia shall in good faith continue the full implementation of the Dam safety recommendations as per the IPoE report. ix. Principle of Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity The three countries shall cooperate on the basis of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, mutual benefit and good faith in order to attain optimal utilization and adequate protection of the River. x. Principle of Peaceful Settlement of Disputes The Three countries will settle disputes, arising out of the interpretation or implementation of this agreement, amicably through consultation or negotiation in accordance with the principle of good faith. If the Parties are unable to resolve the dispute through consultation or negotiation, they may jointly request for conciliation, mediation or refer the matter for the consideration of the Heads of State/Head of Government.
This agreement on Declaration of Principles is signed in Khartoum, Sudan, on Monday the 23rd of March 2015, by the Arab Republic of Egypt, The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and the Republic of Sudan.
For the For the For the Arab Republic of Egypt: Federal Democratic Republic of Sudan: Republic of Ethiopia:
Abdel Fattah El Sisi Hailemariam Desalegn Omer Hassan Elbashir President of the Republic Prime Minister of the President of The Republic Republic
350 Appendices Appendix D:
Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses 1997 Adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 21 May 1997
The Parties to the present Convention, Conscious of the importance of international watercourses and the non- navigational uses thereof in many regions of the world, Having in mind Article 13, paragraph 1 a., of the Charter of the United Nations, which provides that the General Assembly shall initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification, Considering that successful codification and progressive development of rules of international law regarding non-navigational uses of international watercourses would assist in promoting and implementing the purposes and principles set forth in Articles 1 and 2 of the Charter of the United Nations, Taking into account the problems affecting many international watercourses resulting from, among other things, increasing demands and pollution, Expressing the conviction that a framework convention will ensure the utilization, development, conservation, management and protection of international watercourses and the promotion of the optimal and sustainable utilization thereof for present and future generations, Affirming the importance of international cooperation and good- neighbourliness in this field, Aware of the special situation and needs of developing countries, Recalling the principles and recommendations adopted by the United
351 Appendices Nations Conference on Environment and Development of 1992 in the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21, Recalling also the existing bilateral and multilateral agreements regarding the non -navigational uses of international watercourses, Mindful of the valuable contribution of international organizations, both governmental and non - governmental, to the codification and progressive development of international law in this field, Appreciative of the work carried out by the International Law Commission on the law of the non - navigational uses of international watercourses, Bearing in mind United Nations General Assembly resolution 49/52 of 9 December 1994, Have agreed as follows:
PART I. INTRODUCTION
Article 1 Scope of the present Convention 1. The present Convention applies to uses ofinternational watercourses and of their waters for purposes other than navigation and to measures of protection, preservation and management related to the uses of those watercourses and their waters. 2. The uses of international watercourses for navigation is not within the scope of the present Convention except insofar as other uses affect navigation or are affected by navigation.
Article 2 Use of terms For the purposes of the present Convention: a. “Watercourse” means a system of surface waters and groundwaters constituting by virtue of their physical relationship a unitary whole and normally flowing into a common terminus;
352 Appendices b. “International watercourse” means a watercourse, parts of which are situated in different States; c. “Watercourse State” means a State Party to the present Convention in whose territory part of an international watercourse is situated, or a Party that is a regional economic integration organization, in the territory of one or more of whose Member States part of an international watercourse is situated; d. “Regional economic integration organization” means an organization constituted by sovereign States of a given region, to which its member States have transferred competence in respect of matters governed by this Convention and which has been duly authorized in accordance with its internal procedures, to sign, ratify, accept, approve or accede to it.
Article 3 Watercourse agreements 1. In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, nothing in the present Convention shall affect the rights or obligations of a watercourse State arising from agreeme nts in force for it on the date on which it became a party to the present Convention. 2. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1, parties to agreements referred to in paragraph 1 may, where necessary, consider harmonizing such agreements with the basic principles of the present Convention. 3. Watercourse States may enter into one or more agreements, hereinafter referred to as “watercourse agreements”, which apply and adjust the provisions of the present Convention to the characteristics and uses of a particular international watercourse or part thereof. 4. Where a watercourse agreement is concluded between two or more watercourse States, it shall define the waters to which it applies. Such an agreement may be entered into with respect to an entire international watercourse or any part thereof or a particular project, programme or use except insofar as the agreement adversely affects, to a significant extent, the use by one or more other watercourse States of the waters of the watercourse, without their express consent.
353 Appendices 5. Where a watercourse State considers that adjustment and application of the provisions of the present Convention is required because of the characteristics and uses of a particular international watercourse, watercourse States shall consult with a view to negotiating in good faith for the purpose of concluding a watercourse agreement or agreements. 6. Where some but not all watercourse States to a particular international watercourse are parties to an agreement, nothing in such agreement shall affect the rights or obligations under the present Convention of watercourse States that are not parties to such an agreement. Article 4 Parties to watercourse agreements 1. Every watercourse State is entitled to participate in the negotiation of and to become a party to any watercourse agreement that applies to the entire international watercourse, as well as to participate in any relevant consultations. 2. A watercourse State whose use of an international watercourse may be affected to a significant extent by the implementation of a proposed watercourse agreement that applies only to a part of the watercourse or to a particular project, programme or use is entitled to participate in consultations on such an agreement and, where appropriate, in the negotiation thereof in good faith with a view to becoming a party thereto, to the extent that its use is thereby affected.
PART II. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Article 5 Equitable and reasonable utilization and participation 1. Watercourse States shall in their respective territories utilize an international watercourse in an equitable and reasonable manner. In particular, an international watercourse shall be used and developed by watercourse States with a view to attaining optimal and sustainable utilizat ion thereof and benefits therefrom, taking into account the interests of the watercourse States concerned, consistent with adequate protection of the watercourse.
354 Appendices 2. Watercourse States shall participate in the use, development and protection of an international watercourse in an equitable and reasonable manner. Such participation includes both the right to utilize the watercourse and the duty to cooperate in the protection and development thereof, as provided in the present Convention.
Article 6 Factors relevant to equitable and reasonable utilization 1. Utilization of an international watercourse in an equitable and reasonable manner within the meaning of article 5 requires taking into account all relevant factors and circumstances, including: a. Geographic, hydrographic, hydrological, climatic, ecological and other factors of a natural character; b. The social and economic needs of the watercourse States concerned; c. The population dependent on the watercourse in each watercourse State; d. The effects of the use or uses of the watercourses in one watercourse State on other watercourse States; e. Existing and potential uses of the watercourse; f. Conservation, protection, development and economy of use of the water resources of the watercourse and the costs of measures taken to that effect; g. The availability of alternatives, of comparable value, to a particular planned or existing use. 2. In the application of article 5 or paragraph 1 of this article, watercourse States concerned shall, when the need arises, enter into consultations in a spirit of cooperation. 3. The weight to be given to each factor is to be determined by its importance in comparison with that of other relevant factors. In determining what is a reasonable and equitable use, all relevant factors are to be considered together and a conclusion reached on the basis of the whole.
355 Appendices Article 7 Obligation not to cause significant harm 1. Watercourse States shall, in utilizing an international watercourse in their territories, take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm to other watercourse States. 2. Where significant harm nevertheless is caused to another watercourse State, the States whose use causes such harm shall, in the absence of agreement to such use, take all appropriate measures, having due regard for the provisions of articles 5 and 6, in consultation with the affected State, to eliminate or mitigate such harm and, where appropriate, to discuss the question of compensation.
Article 8 General obligation to cooperate 1. Watercourse States shall cooperate on the basis of sovereign equality, territorial integrity, mutual benefit and good faith in order to attain optimal utilization and adequate protection of an international watercourse. 2. In determining the manner of such cooperation, watercourse States may consider the establishment of joint mechanisms or commissions, as deemed necessary by them, to facilitate cooperation on relevant measures and procedures in the light of experience gained through cooperation in existing joint mechanisms and commissions in various regions.
Article 9 Regular exchange of data and information 1. Pursuant to article 8, watercourse States shall on a regular basis exchange readily available data and information on the condition of the watercourse, in particular that of a hydrological, meteorological, hydrogeological and ecological nature and related to the water quality as well as related forecasts. 2. If a watercourse State is requested by another watercourse State to provide data or information that is not readily available, it shall employ its best efforts to comply with the request but may condition
356 Appendices its compliance upon payment by the requesting State of the reasonable costs of collecting and, where appropriate, processing such data or information. 3. Watercourse States shall employ their best efforts to collect and, where appropriate, to process data and information in a manner which facilitates its utilization by the other watercourse States to which it is communicated.
Article 10 Relationship between different kinds of uses 1. In the absence of agreement or custom to the contrary, no use of an international watercourse enjoys inherent priority over other uses. 2. In the event of a conflict between uses of an international watercourse, it shall be resolved with reference to articles 5 to 7, with special regard being given to the requirements of vital human needs.
PART III. PLANNED MEASURES
Article 11 Information concerning planned measures Watercourse States shall exchange information and consult each other and, if necessary, negotiate on the possible effects of planned measures on the condition of an international watercourse.
Article 12 Notification concerning planned measures with possible adverse effects Before a watercourse State implements or permits the implementation of planned measures which may have a significant adverse effect upon other watercourse States, it shall provide those States with timely notification thereof. Such notification shall be accompanied by available technical data and information, including the results of any environmental impact assessment, in order to enable the notified States to evaluate the possible effects of the planned measures.
357 Appendices Article 13 Period for reply to notification Unless otherwise agreed: a. A watercourse State providing a notification under article 12 shall allow the notified States a period of six months within which to study and evaluate the possible effects of the planned measures and to communicate the findings to it; b. This period shall, at the request of a notified State for which the evaluation of the planned measures poses special difficulty, be extended for a period of six months.
Article 14 Obligations of the notifying State during the period for reply During the period referred to in article 13, the notifying State: a. Shall cooperate with the notified States by providing them, on request, with any additional data and information that is available and necessary for an accurate evaluation; and b. Shall not implement or permit the implementation of the planned measures without the consent of the notified States.
Article 15 Reply to notification The notified States shall communicate their findings to the notifying State as early as possible within the period applicable pursuant to article 13. If a notified State finds that implementation of the planned measures would be inconsistent with the provisions of articles 5 or 7, it shall attach to its finding a documented explanation setting forth the reasons for the finding.
Article 16 Absence of reply to notification 1. If, within the period applicable pursuant to article 13, the notifying State receives no communication under article 15, it may, subject to its obligations under articles 5 and 7, proceed with the implementation of the planned measures, in accordance with the notification and any other data and information provided to the notified States.
358 Appendices 2. Any claim to compensation by a notified State which has failed to reply within the period applicable pursuant to article 13 may be offset by the costs incurred by the notifying State for action undertaken after the expiration of the time for a reply which would not have been undertaken if the notified State had objected within that period. Article 17 Consultations and negotiations concerning planned measures 1. If a communication is made under article 15 that implementation of the planned measures would be inconsistent with the provisions of article 5 or 7, the notifying State and the State making the communication shall enter into consultations and, if necessary, negotiations with a view to arriving at an equitable resolution of the situation. 2. The consultations and negotiations shall be conducted on the basis that each State must in goo d faith pay reasonable regard to the rights and legitimate interests of the other State. 3. During the course of the consultations and negotiations, the notifying State shall, if so requested by the notified State at the time it makes the communication, refrain from implementing or permitting the implementation of the planned measures for a period of six months unless otherwise agreed.
Article 18 Procedures in the absence of notification 1. If a watercourse State has reasonable grounds to believe that another watercourse State is planning measures that may have a significant adverse effect upon it, the former State may request the latter to apply the provisions of article 12. The request shall be accompanied by a documented explanation setting forth its grounds. 2. In the event that the State planning the measures nevertheless finds that it is not under an obligation to provide a notification under article 12, it shall so inform the other State, providing a documented explanation setting forth the reasons for such finding. If this finding does not satisfy the other State, the two States shall, at the request of that other State, promptly enter into consultations and negotiations in the manner indicated in paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 17.
359 Appendices 3. During the course of the consultations and negotiations, the State planning the measures shall, if so requested by the other State at the time it requests the initiation of consultations and negotiations, refrain from implementing or permitting the implementation of those measures for a period of six months unless otherwise agreed.
Article 19 Urgent implementation of planned measures 1. In the event that the implementation of planned measures is of the utmost urgency in order to protect public health, public safety or other equally important interests, the State planning the measures may, subject to articles 5 and 7, immediately proceed to implementation, notwithstanding the provisions of article 14 and paragraph 3 of article 17. 2. In such case, a formal declaration of the urgency of the measures shall be communicated without delay to the other watercourse States referred to in article 12 together with the relevant data and information. 3. The State planning the measures shall, at the request of any of the States referred to in paragraph 2, promptly enter into consultations and negotiations with it in the manner indicated in paragraphs 1 and 2 of article 17.
PART IV. PROTECTION, PRESERVATION AND MANAGEMENT
Article 20 Protection and preservation of ecosystems Watercourse States shall, individually and, where appropriate, jointly, protect and preserve the ecosystems of international watercourses.
Article 21 Prevention, reduction and control of pollution 1. For the purpose of this article, “pollution of an international watercourse” means any detrimental alteration in the composition or quality of the waters of an international watercourse which results directly or indirectly from human conduct.
360 Appendices 2. Watercourse States shall, individually and, where appropriate, join tly, prevent, reduce and control the pollution of an international watercourse that may cause significant harm to other watercourse States or to their environment, including harm to human health or safety, to the use of the waters for any beneficial purpose or to the living resources of the watercourse. Watercourse States shall take steps to harmonize their policies in this connection. 3. Watercourse States shall, at the request of any of them, consult with a view to arriving at mutually agreeable measures and methods to prevent, reduce and control pollution of an international watercourse, such as: a. Setting joint water quality objectives and criteria; b. Establishing techniques and practices to address pollution from point and non - point sources; c. Establishing lists of substances the introduction of which into the waters of an international watercourse is to be prohibited, limited, investigated or monitored.
Article 22 Introduction of alien or new species Watercourse States shall take all measures necessary to prevent the introduction of species, alien or new, into an international watercourse which may have effects detrimental to the ecosystem of the watercourse resulting in significant harm to other watercourse States.
Article 23 Protection and preservation of the marine environment Watercourse States shall, individually and, where appropriate, in cooperation with other States, take all measures with respect to an international watercourse that are necessary to protect and preserve the marine environment, including estuaries, taking into account generally accepted international rules and standards.
361 Appendices Article 24 Management 1. Watercourse States shall, at the request of any of them, enter into consultations concerning the management of an international watercourse, which may include the establishment of a joint management mechanism. 2. For the purposes of this article, “management” refers, in particular, to: a. Planning the sustainable development of an international watercourse and providing for the implementation of any plans adopted; and b. Otherwise promoting the rational and optimal utilization, protection and control of the watercourse.
Article 25 Regulation 1. Watercourse States shall cooperate, where appropriate, to respond to needs or opportunities for regulation of the flow of the waters of an international watercourse. 2. Unless otherwise agreed, watercourse States shall participate on an equitable basis in the construction and maintenance or defrayal of the costs of such regulation works as they may have agreed to undertake. 3. For the purposes of this article, “regulation” means the use of hydraulic works or any other continuing measure to alter, vary or otherwise control the flow of the waters of an international watercourse.
Article 26 Installations 1. Watercourse States shall, within their respective territories, employ their best efforts to maintain and protect installations, facilities and other works related to an international watercourse. 2. Watercourse States shall, at the request of any of them which has reasonable grounds to believe that it may suffer significant adverse effects, enter into consultations with regard to:
362 Appendices a. The safe operation and maintenance of installations, facilities or other works related to an international watercourse; and b. The protection of installations, facilities or other works from wilful or negligent acts or the forces of nature.
PART V. HARMFUL CONDITIONS AND EMERGENCY SITUATIONS
Article 27 Prevention and mitigation of harmful conditions Watercourse States shall, individually and, where appropriate, jointly, take all appropriate measures to prevent or mitigate conditions related to an international watercourse that may be harmful to other watercourse States, whether resulting from natural causes or human conduct, such as flood or ice conditions, water-borne diseases, siltation, erosion, salt -water intrusion, drought or desertification.
Article 28 Emergency situations 1. For the purposes of this article, “emergency” means a situation that causes, or poses an imminent threat of causing, serious harm to watercourse States or other States and that results suddenly from natural causes, such as floods, the breaking up of ice, landslides or Earthquakes, or from human conduct, such as industrial accidents. 2. A watercourse State shall, without delay and by the most expeditious means available, notify other potentially affected States and competent international organizations of any emergency originating within its territory. 3. A watercourse State within whose territory an emergency originates shall, in cooperation with potentially affected States and, where appropriate, competent international organizations, immediately take all practicable measures necessitated by the circumstances to prevent, mitigate and eliminate harmful effects of the emergency.
363 Appendices 4. When necessary, watercourse States shall jointly develop contingency plans for responding to emergencies, in cooperation, where appropriate, with other potentially affected States and competent international organizations.
PART VI. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Article 29 International watercourses and installations in time of armed conflict International watercourses and related installations, facilities and other works shall enjoy the protection accorded by the principles and rules of international law applicable in international and non - international armed conflict and shall not be used in violation of those principles and rules.
Article 30 Indirect procedures In cases where there are serious obstacles to direct contacts between watercourse States, the States concerned shall fulfil their obligations of cooperation provided for in the present Convention, including exchange of data and information, notification, communication, consultations a nd negotiations, through any indirect procedure accepted by them.
Article 31 Data and information vital to national defence or security Nothing in the present Convention obliges a watercourse State to provide data or information vital to its national defence or security. Nevertheless, that State shall cooperate in good faith with the other watercourse States with a view to providing as much information as possible under the circumstances.
Article 32 Non-discrimination Unless the watercourse States concerned have agreed otherwise for the protection of the interests of persons, natural or juridical, who have suffered
364 Appendices or are under a serious threat of suffering significant transboundary harm as a result of activities related to an international watercourse, a watercourse State shall not discriminate on the basis of nationality or residence or place where the injury occurred, in granting to such persons, in accordance with its legal system, access to judicial or other procedures, or a right to claim compensation or other relief in respect of significant harm caused by such activities carried on in its territory.
Article 33 Settlement of disputes 1. In the event of a dispute between two or more parties concerning the interpretation or application of the present Convention, the parties concerned shall, in the absence of an applicable agreement between them, seek a settlement of the dispute by peaceful means in accordance with the following provisions. 2. If the parties concerned cannot reach agreement by negotiation requested by one of them, they may jointly seek the good offices of, or request mediation or conciliation by, a third party, or make use, as appropriate, of any joint watercourse institutions that may have been established by them or agree to submit the dispute to arbitration or to the International Court of Justice. 3. Subject to the operation of paragraph 10, if after six months from the time of the request for negotiations referred to in paragraph 2, the parties concerned have not been able to settle their dispute through negotiation or any other means referred to in paragraph 2, the dispute shall be submitted, at the request of any of the parties to the dispute, to impartial fact -finding in accordance with paragraphs 4 to 9, unless the parties otherwise agree. 4. A Fact-finding Commission shall be established, composed of one member nominated by each party concerned and in addition a member not having the nationality of any of the parties concerned chosen by the nominated members who shall serve as Chairman. 5. If the members nominated by the parties are unable to agree on a Chairman within three months of the request for the establishment of the Commission, any party concerned may request the Secretary
365 Appendices - General of the United Nations to appoint the Chairman who shall not have the nationality of any of the parties to the dispute or of any riparian State of the watercourse concerned. If one of the parties fails to nominate a member within three months of the initial request pursuant to paragraph 3, an y other party concerned may request the Secretary-General of the United Nations to appoint a person who shall not have the nationality of any of the parties to the dispute or of any riparian State of the watercourse concerned. The person so appointed shall constitute a single-member Commission. 6. The Commission shall determine its own procedure. 7. The parties concerned have the obligation to provide the Commission with such information as it may require and, on request, to permit the Commission to have access to their respective territory and to inspect any facilities, plant, equipment, construction or natural feature relevant for the purpose of its inquiry. 8. The Commission shall adopt its report by a majority vote, unless it is a single -member Commission, and shall submit that report to the parties concerned setting forth its findings and the reasons therefor and such recommendations as it deems appropriate for an equitable solution of the dispute, which the parties concerned shall consider in good faith. 9. The expenses of the Commission shall be borne equally by the parties concerned. 10. When ratifying, accepting, approving or acceding to the present Convention, or at any time thereafter, a party which is not a regional economic integration organization may declare in a written instrument submitted to the depositary that, in respect of any dispute not resolved in accordance with paragraph 2, it recognizes as compulsory ipso facto, and without special agreement in relation to any party accepting the same obligation: a. Submission of the dispute to the International Court of Justice; and/or b. Arbitration by an arbitral tribunal established and operating, unless the parties to the dispute otherwise agreed, in accordance with the procedure laid down in the annex to the present Convention.
366 Appendices A party which is a regional economic integration organization may make a declaration with like effect in relation to arbitration in accordance with subparagraph b.
PART VII. FINAL CLAUSES
Article 34 Signature The present Convention shall be open for signature by all States and by regional economic integration organizations from 21 May 1997 until 20 May 2000 at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Article 35 Ratification, acceptance, approval or accession 1. The present Convention is subject to ratification, acceptance, approval or accession by States and by regional economic integration organizations. The instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. 2. Any regional economic integration organization which becomes a Party to this Convention without any of its member States being a Party shall be bound by all the obligations under the Convention. In the case of such organizations, one or more of whose member States is a Party to this Convention, the organization and its member States shall decide on their respective responsibilities for the performance of their obligations under the Convention. In such cases, the organization and the member States shall not be entitled to exercise rights under the Convention concurrently. 3. In their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, the regional economic integration organizations shall declare the extent of their competence with respect to the matters governed by the Convention. These organizations shall also inform the Secretary -General of the United Nations of any substantial modification in the extent of their competence.
367 Appendices Article 36 Entry into force 1. The present Convention shall enter into force on the ninetieth day following the date of deposit of the thirty-fifth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the Secretary - General of the United Nations. 2. For each State or regional economic integration organization that ratifies, accepts or approves the Convention or accedes thereto after the deposit of the thirty -fifth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, the Convention shall enter into force on the ninetieth day after the deposit by such State or regional economic integration organization of its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession. 3. For the purposes of paragraphs 1 and 2, any instrument deposited by a regional economic integration organization shall not be counted as additional to those deposited by States.
Article 37 Authentic texts The original of the present Convention, of which the Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned Plenipotentiaries, being duly authorized thereto, have signed this Convention.
DONE at New York, this twenty-first day of May one thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven.
368 Appendices ANNEX ARBITRATION
Article 1 Unless the parties to the dispute otherwise agree, the arbitration pursuant to article 33 of the Convention shall take place in accordance with articles 2 to 14 of the present annex.
Article 2 The claimant party shall notify the respondent party that it is referring a dispute to arbitration pursuant to article 33 of the Convention. The notification shall state the subject matter of arbitration and include, in particular, the articles of the Convention, the interpretation or application of which are at issue. If the parties do not agree on the subject matter of the dispute, the arbitral tribunal shall determine the subject matter.
Article 3 1. In disputes between two parties, the arbitral tribunal shall consist of three members. Each of the parties to the dispute shall appoint an arbitrator and the two arbitrators so appointed shall designate by common agreement the third arbitrator, who shall be the Chairman of the tribunal. The latter shall not be a national of one of the parties to the dispute or of any riparian State of the watercourse concerned, nor have his or her usual place of residence in the territory of one of these parties or such riparian State, nor have dealt with the case in any other capacity. 2. In disputes between more than two parties, parties in the same interest shall appoint one arbitrator jointly by agreement.
369 Appendices 3. Any vacancy shall be filled in the manner prescribed for the initial appointment.
Article 4 1. If the Chairman of the arbitral tribunal has not been designated within two months of the appointment of the second arbitrator, the President of the International Court of Justice shall, at the request of a party, designate the Chairman within a further two -month period. 2. If one of the parties to the dispute does not appoint an arbitrator within two months of receipt of the request, the other party may inform the President of the International Court of Justice, who shall make the designation within a further two-month period.
Article 5 The arbitral tribunal shall render its decisions in accordance with the provisions of this Convention and international law.
Article 6 Unless the parties to the dispute otherwise agree, the arbitral tribunal shall determine its own rules of procedure.
Article 7 The arbitral tribunal may, at the request of one of the parties, recommend essential interim measures of protection.
Article 8 1. The parties to the dispute shall facilitate the work of the arbitral tribunal and, in particular, using all means at their disposal, shall: a. Provide it with all relevant documents, information and facilities; and b. Enable it, when necessary, to call witnesses or experts and receive their evidence.
370 Appendices 2. The parties and the arbitrators are under an obligation to protect the confidentiality of any information they receive in confidence during the proceedings of the arbitral tribunal. Article 9 Unless the arbitral tribunal determines otherwise because of the particular circumstances of the case, the costs of the tribunal shall be borne by the parties to the dispute in equal shares. The tribunal shall keep a record of all its costs, and shall furnish a final statement thereof to the parties.
Article 10 Any party that has an interest of a legal nature in the subject matter of the dispute which may be affected by the decision in the case, may intervene in the proceedings with the consent of the tribunal.
Article 11 The tribunal may hear and determine counterclaims arising directly out of the subject matter of the dispute.
Article 12 Decisions both on procedure and substance of the arbitral tribunal shall be taken by a majority vote of its members.
Article 13 If one of the parties to the dispute does not appear before the arbitral tribunal or fails to defend its case, the other party may request the tribunal to continue the proceedings and to make its award. Absence of a party or a failure of a party to defend its case shall not constitute a bar to the proceedings. Before rendering its final decision, the arbitral tribunal must satisfy itself that the claim is well founded in fact and law.
371 Appendices Article 14 1. The tribunal shall render its final decision within five months of the date on which it is fully constituted unless it finds it necessary to extend the time limit for a period which should not exceed five more months. 2. The final decision of the arbitral tribunal shall be confined to the subject matter of the dispute and shall state the reasons on which it is based. It shall contain the names of the members who have participated and the date of the final decision. Any member of the tribunal may attach a separate or dissenting opinion to the final decision. 3. The award shall be binding on the parties to the dispute. It shall be without appeal unless the parties to the dispute have agreed in advance to an appellate procedure. 4. Any controversy which may arise between the parties to the dispute as regards the interpretation or manner of implementation of the final decision may be submitted by either party for decision to the arbitral tribunal which rendered it.
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