CAIRO — Ministers from the 10 African countries on the Nile river began crucial discussions Monday over drafting a new water sharing agreement, which is hampered by Egypt’s refusal to reduce its share of world’s longest river.

In an opening address to the Nile Basin Initiative, held in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, Egypt’s Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif urged for a "return of the cooperation and harmony” among the group’s members, describing the ongoing dispute as a "misunderstanding.”

In the two-day meeting, participants are hoping to conclude the Nile Cooperative Framework Agreement, which establishes a permanent body to oversee water allocation along the Nile.

During talks last month in Kinshasa, Congo, officials from the 10 countries of the Nile basin, failed to agree over a new system of water sharing desired by a majority of the members.

A 1929 agreement between Egypt and Britain, acting on behalf of its then east African colonies, set up the original sharing framework and gave Cairo the right to veto upstream projects.
In a 1959 agreement with Sudan, Egypt was awarded an annual 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water, the largest share of any country along the river.

The remaining eight riparian states resent Egypt’s quota and want to draft a new agreement.

Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohammed Nasreddin Allam has repeatedly said that his country will not accept any change to its quota.

The Associated Press