Six African countries to ratify new 'Nile Treaty'

Six African countries including Rwanda have agreed on the ratification of a new treaty on the use of the waters of the Nile river, an official source revealed here on Friday.

According to Kenyan minister of Water and Irrigation Charity Ngilu, the commission whose mission is to supervise the equitable sharing of the waters of the Nile has been operational since 1999 following an accord signed in Nairobi, Kenya, by the 10 riparian states of the Nile Basin.

However, she said six countries in the region including Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Ethiopia agreed on a shared vision to achieve sustainable socio-economic development.

"These six countries are now willing to share the resources of the Nile as proportionate to its needs but without ignoring the interests of the other member countries," Mrs Ngilu told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

The Nile Basin Initiative groups 10 countries: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

The basin of Africa's longest river serves an estimated 300 million people. An accord on the waters of the Nile signed in 1929 gave Egypt exclusive use and surveillance of the river whose source is said to be in the high mountains of southern Rwanda.

The Kenyan official made the comments a few days after an Indian-based Think-Tank "Strategic Foresight Group (SGF)" working on issues of global importance and relevance released a report saying all countries of the Nile Basin need to prepare national water strategies.