Shun selfishness over River Nile, nations urged

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania yesterday urged countries that benefit from the Nile River to shun individualistic tendencies that could create enmity among them.

Gracing Nile Basin Day in Dar es Salaam, Vice President Philip Mpango said some African countries haD been involved in conflict due to water resources allocation.

He said sharing was possible and that with good management and collective agreement, the resource would be sustainable for future generations.

Dr Mpango added that having individual decisions for each country would not lead to sustainable development, and that collective bargaining is a key factor.

“There are African countries that are in conflict over this resource. We reach a point of equating this resource into a curse. Cooperation in the use of shared resources is possible. Member states must ensure good distribution and management,” he said.

Participating in the event were representatives from Nile Basin member states including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan and Tanzania.

The Nile, Africa’s longest river, has been at the centre of a decades-long complex dispute involving several countries that are dependent on the river’s waters. At the forefront of the dispute are Ethiopia and Egypt, with Sudan having found itself dragged into the issue.

At the heart of dispute is the decision by Ethiopia to build Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam, the $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile in an effort to generate over 5,000 megawatts of electricity to power economic growth. On the other hand, Egypt and Sudan, which also rely on water from the Nile River, believe that the dam in Ethiopia will disrupt water flow in their countries.

Egypt, which relies almost entirely on the Nile for its water supply, sees the disruption of water flow into the country as an existential issue.

Data shows that the number of people living within the basin has increased to 778 million people in this year from 238 million people in 2018.