A new agreement for the use of the water from the Nile causing conclict

The day after I decided to make a blog based on the idea of water, the news that some of the upstream countries of the Nile had made an treaty on how to share the water of  the Nile. At a meeting in Entebbe, Uganda, Rwanda, Etiopia, Uganda og Tanzania agreed to sign this agreement thats a framework for further agreements. Kenya also supports this idea, while the countries of DR Congo and Burundi was not present at the negotiations.

                                                    A picture of the northern end of the Nile, 
                                                    Foto: HO/Afp

First a little about the Nile itself. The river is considered as the longest river in the world and the drainage basin it gets it water from takes a total of ten procent of the area in Africa. It has two main tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The countries that so far has had the most advanced use of the Nile has been the to last countries along the river, Sudan and Egypt. The use of the Nile in Egypt has been and are the main source for the whole egyptian population wich otherwise is a very arrid land. The societies along the Nile has been seen upon as one of the cradles of civilization in the world, along with the civilizations in Mesopotamia and in the valley of Indus. 

As it is the countries of Sudan and Egypt that has made the most use of water from the Nile they also oppose quite much to the new treaty. This new treaty is an alternative option replacing old treaties, like the treaty from 1959 between Sudan and Egypt where they distributed the use of the Nile among these two countries. The countries that has signed the new treaty means that all countries must have rights in using the water from the Nile to hydropower projects and irrigation. Egypt and Sudan on their side fear that the use of the water in the upper countries of the Nile will eventually drain the river very much, leaving little to use in their countries.

This is another example of the need for international agreements for most parties involved. The still water is a resource that are getting more and more drained out across the world. and the use of water is from many experts seen upon as a main source for future conflicts around the world.