An African summit on Nile water, which was scheduled to be held in the Ugandan capital of Kampala next week, was postponed for no apparent reason, said Egyptian Ambassador Mona Omar, assistant secretary of state for African affairs on Wednesday.
Omar said the ministry had received notice that the consultative Nile Basin summit, which was scheduled to be held on Saturday and Sunday, had been postponed without an explanation for the move.
Meetings had been held throughout the week in preparation for the summit and the Egyptian delegation was to be headed by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif.
Egypt planned to propose the establishment of an investment and development commission similar to the Cooperative Framework Agreement signed by five upstream states in Entebbe, Uganda in May 2010.
According to official media reports, Egypt had also received an invitation to participate in the Nile Basin meeting scheduled to be held in Kenya on 27 January.
The dispute between Nile Basin countries and downstream states erupted after Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania signed the Entebbe framework agreement in May despite Egyptian and Sudanese opposition.
Egypt enjoys the lion's share of Nile waters at a rate of 51 billion square meters annually based on a 1959 accord signed with Sudan, which acquired 18 billion square meters of water annually in the deal.
Egypt says both the 1959 agreement, as well as another accord signed in 1929 with British colonialists, stipulate prior approval by all Nile Basin states before implementation of any water-utilization projects.
Egypt’s unyielding stance has provoked criticism from basin states, which argue that the historic agreements are invalid because they were ratified before Nile Basin states gained independence.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
