Ethiopia urges Nile nations to ratify deal opposed by Egypt

Terra Daily via AFP: Ethiopia used a regional meeting Thursday aimed to promote cooperation over the Nile river to urge other nations to ratify a controversial water deal fiercely opposed by Egypt.

Addressing water ministers and officials from the 10-nation Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), Ethiopia's Minister for Water and Energy Alemayehu Tegenu challenged Egypt's historical majority control usage of the river water. "We will not allow a single country to have full control over our shared resources," Alemayehu said, speaking at the annual NBI conference held in Juba, the capital of its newest member South Sudan.

The countries have been embroiled in a heated row after Ethiopia began diverting the Blue Nile River last month for the construction of the 6,000 megawatt Grand Renaissance Dam, sparking concern in Cairo about the impact on downstream water levels.

Ethiopia's parliament last week was the first to ratify the NBI's Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA), a deal that replaces a colonial-era agreement that granted Egypt and Sudan the majority of water rights. It allows upstream countries to implement irrigation and hydropower projects without first seeking Egypt's approval....

The route of the Nile, map added to by Roke, building upon work by DanMS, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license