WATANI International
6 March 2011
Last Monday, Burundi became the sixth Nile basin State to signed the Cooperative Framework Agreement, an agreement signed last year by Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya, following decades of talks that involved all ten riparian states.
The agreement allows upstream countries to implement irrigation and hydropower projects without first seeking Egypt’s approval, as had been the case with previous agreements signed during colonial times.
Now that six Nile countries have signed the accord, the countries’ respective parliaments can move forward with ratification of the deal. All six parliaments are expected to ratify the Cooperative Framework Agreement, which is then expected to create the Nile Basin Commission, a body that will decide on river projects in the region.
Egypt is set to lose its veto power on rights to Nile waters use upstream, as well as its 90 per cent control of Nile waters.