All Nile Basin States have the right to reliable access to and use of the Nile River system for health, agriculture, livelihoods, production and environment, Article 2,f of the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA).
Each Nile Basin state has the right to use, within its territory, the waters of the Nile River Basin, and lays down a number of factors for determining equitable and reasonable utilization.
The Nile council of ministers confirmed the ratification on the 2nd of August 2024 in Kampala Uganda during the 32nd annual council and the 27th NEL council ministers’ meeting.
A month ago, South Sudan announced that its Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA) unanimously ratified the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA).
For Burundi, the Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) came twelve months after the National Assembly has passed the bill ratifying the agreement.
Five Nile basin member states ratified the CFA including Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan and Burundi which are upstream countries excluding downstream states : Egypt and Sudan.
The CFA is modelled largely on the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses Which the CFA includes the contribution of each basin state to the waters of the Nile River System, and the extent and proportion of the drainage area in the territory of each basin state.
According to the framework (article 3, 6), The Nile Basin States have the right to use water within their territories, the waters of the Nile River System in a manner that is consistent with the other basic principles referred to herein.
Its entails, according to Burundi top officials, that the six upstream countries can “develop irrigation and hydroelectric dam projects without waiting for prior approval from Cairo.
Despite continued rejection by Egypt and Sudan, the CFA is now about to enter into force.
Given Egypt’s geographic and hydrologic vulnerability by virtue of its place as a downstream state, a legal regime that protects its interests is increasingly vital, says Dr. Salman M.A. Salman, an academic researcher and consultant on water law and policy.
The Agreement imposes several obligations on the Nile Basin States, including an obligation to protect and improve the water quality of the Basin, to prevent the introduction of any alien or new species into the River System, which may have detrimental effects on its ecosystems, and to protect and conserve wetlands within the Basin.
The CFA also affirms the “perfect equality” of rights of all Nile Basin States in the use of the Nile, as well as the “exclusion of any preferential privilege of any one riparian State in relation to the others.”
In other words, the CFA recognizes that both the upstream and downstream Nile Basin States maintain “equal rights” to use the Nile Watercourse, independent of any prior degree of Nile development or use.
According experts, given that Egypt and Sudan continued to reject the CFA, it is devoid of any legal relevance vis-à-vis these states. Considering the geography of the Nile Basin, where upstream water utilization does not affect other upstream states implementing the CFA without the involvement of Egypt and Sudan is impractical.
“The purpose of a basin-wide agreement on the Nile Basin is to govern the interests of both upstream and downstream states regarding the use, allocation, and management of the Nile watercourse”, says Dr. Salman M.A. Salman.
“Egypt (and Sudan) should accept the CFA in part because of how safeguards their interests through equitable and reasonable utilization, cooperative utilization, the “no significant harm” principle, and binding dispute resolution mechanisms”, he added.
The entry into force of the CFA will enable the establishment of the Nile Basin Commission replacing the NBI with wider and more elaborate mandate, power, visibility and recognition by the world water and development aid communities.
The CFA will enter into force 60 days after six countries have ratified or acceded to the document and deposited their instrument with the African Union; that is on the 6th October 2024.
The Nile River Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement in details.
