n00b
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 10, 2008
- 1,015
- 2,680
Kuna mdau mmoja alianzisha hii topic ila sijajua ni nani (nahisi tu ni Ab-Titchaz), naiweka kama ilivyo:
In situations like this, the EAC would have been of great importance, but the division amongst us and the disunity portrayed in the community, we will always get stuck with treaties signed by our colonizers. As the adage goes, 'unity is strength', our unity as a community would have contributed a lot in overturning this old, outdated, racist treaty, we need each other, not only for this issue, but for many problems that are raising within and outside our borders.
As sad as it is, East Africans will never benefit fully from its only large fresh water lakeAs millions of Kenyans face starvation, and as environmental activists blame bad environmental policies, climate change and deforestation for the current drought and famine facing the country, one important factor has been conveniently overlooked: the role that Britain and Egypt have played in denying countries of the Eastern Africa region the use of their own water resources. The Nile Water Agreement of 1929, which Britain signed on behalf of its East African colonies, forbids (yes, forbids) countries surrounding Africas largest freshwater water body Lake Victoria from having full use of its waters. The treaty, which has been criticised as a colonial relic, grants Egypt the lions share of River Niles waters.
The agreement also gives Egypt the right to inspect the entire length of the Nile, including Lake Victoria, to ensure that water is not diverted to countries in the region, which are monitored to ensure that the water is not used for irrigation. The bizarre agreement has resulted in a situation where Egypt has the right to use 48 billion cubic metres of water per year, compared with Sudan, which was only allocated 4 billion cubic metres.
A second agreement in 1959 increased Egypts share to 55.5 billion cubic metres and Sudans to 18.5 billion cubic metres. Whats worse, Ethiopia, whose highlands are the source of up to 80 per cent of the Niles waters, and which suffers from perennial drought and famine year after year, had virtually no right to use any of the Niles waters.
The 4,000-mile Nile has fascinated colonialists since the days of David Livingstone. Explorers undertook expensive expeditions in search of its source, an undertaking that led to the eventual colonisation of East Africa by Britain. The 1929 treaty was drawn up at a time when it seemed like the sun would never set on the British Empire (and it seems the sun still hasnt set on a lake that was named after an English queen. Why was the name never changed after the East Africans achieved independence?).
Egypt was a strategic ally of the British Empire because of its proximity to the Suez Canal, which provided a naval short-cut to Britains most prized possession, India. According to a 2004 article published in the UKs Guardian newspaper, the international community and donors are reluctant to question the validity of the treaty for fear of upsetting Egypt, a key ally of the United States.
THIS MEANS THAT THE ESTIMATED 160 million people in some in this region can only dream of using River Nile to irrigate their crops. Ironically, these are the same people who are being asked both by their governments and by donors to wean themselves from rain-fed agriculture.
Tanzania has consistently questioned the validity of the treaty considering that it was drawn when all the countries impacted, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were colonies of Western powers. Egypt has already stated that it will declare war on any country that threatens the 1929 and 1959 treaties, though Tanzania has defied the treaty in recent years.
It is all very well blaming bad policies and poor environmental management for our woes, but East African nations need to address the issue of whether a treaty drawn by a colonial power can still be valid today.
A similar treaty was drawn up in 1904, when the Maasai willingly ceded their territory in central Rift Valley to white settlers. The validity of that treaty was questioned by various Maasai activists, including the late Elijah Marima ole Sempeta, a century later in 2004, when the treaty was supposed to have expired. His efforts were rebuked by none other than Kenyan Cabinet ministers who claimed that the treaty was not just valid but had to be respected for 999 years.
Is it fair for a country that is thousands of miles downstream to control the lives of millions of people upstream? How long before people of the East Africa region continue depending on rain to feed themselves? What kind of hypocrisy allows rich nations to bequeath special status to Egypt at the expense of countries whose people face starvation because they have no right to use their own water?
Colonialism did terrible things to the people of East Africa, but the Nile treaty is perhaps one of those things whose effects will be felt for generations to come unless the countries of the region force Egypt and the international community to renegotiate its contents so that the waters of the Nile are equitably shared by all countries that are its origins and in which it passes through.
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion...h/-/index.html
In situations like this, the EAC would have been of great importance, but the division amongst us and the disunity portrayed in the community, we will always get stuck with treaties signed by our colonizers. As the adage goes, 'unity is strength', our unity as a community would have contributed a lot in overturning this old, outdated, racist treaty, we need each other, not only for this issue, but for many problems that are raising within and outside our borders.
As sad as it is, East Africans will never benefit fully from its only large fresh water lakeAs millions of Kenyans face starvation, and as environmental activists blame bad environmental policies, climate change and deforestation for the current drought and famine facing the country, one important factor has been conveniently overlooked: the role that Britain and Egypt have played in denying countries of the Eastern Africa region the use of their own water resources. The Nile Water Agreement of 1929, which Britain signed on behalf of its East African colonies, forbids (yes, forbids) countries surrounding Africas largest freshwater water body Lake Victoria from having full use of its waters. The treaty, which has been criticised as a colonial relic, grants Egypt the lions share of River Niles waters.
The agreement also gives Egypt the right to inspect the entire length of the Nile, including Lake Victoria, to ensure that water is not diverted to countries in the region, which are monitored to ensure that the water is not used for irrigation. The bizarre agreement has resulted in a situation where Egypt has the right to use 48 billion cubic metres of water per year, compared with Sudan, which was only allocated 4 billion cubic metres.
A second agreement in 1959 increased Egypts share to 55.5 billion cubic metres and Sudans to 18.5 billion cubic metres. Whats worse, Ethiopia, whose highlands are the source of up to 80 per cent of the Niles waters, and which suffers from perennial drought and famine year after year, had virtually no right to use any of the Niles waters.
The 4,000-mile Nile has fascinated colonialists since the days of David Livingstone. Explorers undertook expensive expeditions in search of its source, an undertaking that led to the eventual colonisation of East Africa by Britain. The 1929 treaty was drawn up at a time when it seemed like the sun would never set on the British Empire (and it seems the sun still hasnt set on a lake that was named after an English queen. Why was the name never changed after the East Africans achieved independence?).
Egypt was a strategic ally of the British Empire because of its proximity to the Suez Canal, which provided a naval short-cut to Britains most prized possession, India. According to a 2004 article published in the UKs Guardian newspaper, the international community and donors are reluctant to question the validity of the treaty for fear of upsetting Egypt, a key ally of the United States.
THIS MEANS THAT THE ESTIMATED 160 million people in some in this region can only dream of using River Nile to irrigate their crops. Ironically, these are the same people who are being asked both by their governments and by donors to wean themselves from rain-fed agriculture.
Tanzania has consistently questioned the validity of the treaty considering that it was drawn when all the countries impacted, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were colonies of Western powers. Egypt has already stated that it will declare war on any country that threatens the 1929 and 1959 treaties, though Tanzania has defied the treaty in recent years.
It is all very well blaming bad policies and poor environmental management for our woes, but East African nations need to address the issue of whether a treaty drawn by a colonial power can still be valid today.
A similar treaty was drawn up in 1904, when the Maasai willingly ceded their territory in central Rift Valley to white settlers. The validity of that treaty was questioned by various Maasai activists, including the late Elijah Marima ole Sempeta, a century later in 2004, when the treaty was supposed to have expired. His efforts were rebuked by none other than Kenyan Cabinet ministers who claimed that the treaty was not just valid but had to be respected for 999 years.
Is it fair for a country that is thousands of miles downstream to control the lives of millions of people upstream? How long before people of the East Africa region continue depending on rain to feed themselves? What kind of hypocrisy allows rich nations to bequeath special status to Egypt at the expense of countries whose people face starvation because they have no right to use their own water?
Colonialism did terrible things to the people of East Africa, but the Nile treaty is perhaps one of those things whose effects will be felt for generations to come unless the countries of the region force Egypt and the international community to renegotiate its contents so that the waters of the Nile are equitably shared by all countries that are its origins and in which it passes through.
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion...h/-/index.html
