KINSHASA - The Nile Council of Ministers has finally adopted the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) after ten years of disagreement over some articles in the Pact.

The Pact seeks to establish a permanent commission of The Nile Basin which would move from its current "initiative” level to a permanently globally recognised commission.

Its adoption came as a milestone to the countries which share the waters of the Nile.

The reluctance to adopt the pact arose from Article 14 (b) in the draft agreement that talks about the Nile water security.

The two governments of Egypt and Sudan fretted over the article. Before the extraordinary NILE-Com meeting in Kinshasa, this issue had remained unresolved with Egypt and Sudan insisting on rephrasing.

Speaking in Kinshasa after the adoption, Rwanda’s Minister of Environment and Natural Resource, Stanislas Kamanzi said that Rwanda was on the forefront of seeing the pact adopted.

Tanzania’s Minister of Water, Prof. Mark James Mwandosya, was the first to break the news of the pact being adopted. He said meeting had made history in coming up with a general consensus on the pact.

"We have agreed and decided that the controversial article 14 (b) be made the annex of the pact and this will be done by the Nile Basin Commission in the first six months of its establishment,” said Mwandosya.

He added that; "all concerns related to article 14b will be put in the annex.”

After the adoption, all ministers charged with water resources are expected to meet in Egypt for the signing of the agreement.

Thereafter, the process will be followed by ratification and then implementation.

Meanwhile, earlier during the Kinshasa deliberations, the Sudanese delegation headed by their Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, Kamal Ali Mohammed stormed out of the meeting hall.

The talks were being held behind closed doors and attended by Ministers in Charge of Water affairs from all the nine member states that share the Nile.

According to sources who attended the meeting, the Sudanese Minister claimed that the issue of signing the agreement was initially referred to Heads of State and questioned the credibility of ministers to discuss issues that are already out of their hands.

Several officials who talked to The New Times confirmed that Sudan had walked out in protest but, the Ugandan State Minister for environment Janet Namuyangu said that the reason why Sudanese walked out before the talks started is because they were going to catch a plane.

But observers questioned why the Sudanese delegation had booked a plane that would leave before the talks even began
Namuyangu’s revelation was also backed by the Ethiopian Minister Asfaw Dingamo and DRC’s Jose Endundu.

Earlier, Kamanzi had confirmed that Sudan had protested earlier making all delegates take a premature break to plan the way forward.

"Sudanese claimed that they had to take a flight and requested to move out but that came after their Minister questioned the aptitude of the meeting to dialogue issues related to signing of the CFA, yet it had been forwarded to Heads of State,” said Kamanzi.

Rwanda wants to sign
Kamanzi emphasized Rwanda’s stand saying that the signing had been delayed and Member States of the Nile Basin should look at the issue in a wider perspective.

"It is clear from the scientific point of view that the fear expressed by some individuals or countries should not be a big issue; the Nile waters are too much, surely there will be equal sharing of all benefits,” added Kamanzi.

Initially, Negotiations for the CFA started in 1997, after almost ten years; the draft text of the CFA was submitted to the meeting of the Nile Council of Ministers for Water Affairs for their consideration in June 2007.

Following extensive discussions, the Nile-Com concluded that the CFA be referred to Heads of State to resolve the outstanding issue.

In his address to the ministers, DRC First Deputy Prime-Minister for Reconstruction, Emile Bongeli requested ministers to put aside personal interested and join efforts to sign the pact in the benefit of their people.

The two countries that have hitherto objected to the draft 39-article document are Egypt and Sudan which are said to be users of the largest volume of  the Nile waters.

Other member countries of the basin are Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, DRC, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Burundi, countries that have access to waters of the longest river in the world.

Ends