South Sudan Set to Sign New Nile Agreement

The Blue Nile, part of the Nile River, is the source of discussion on relations between Egypt and Ethiopia. Part of the waterway could be diverted in a damn project by Ethiopia., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency (Addis Ababa)

Sudan: South Sudan Set to Sign New Nile Agreement

BY NESRU JEMAL, 26 JUNE 2013

South Sudan is set to sign an agreement that would replace a colonial-era law that gave most of the River Nile's waters to Egypt and Sudan, Aljazeera quoted local media as having reported.

The signing of the Cooperative Framework Agreement of the Nile Basin countries, sometimes known as the Entebbe agreement, is likely to be signed and ratified at the Nile Water Summit in Juba on Thursday.

Paul Mayom Akec, South Sudan's Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, said earlier in the week that the signing of the agreement was "inevitable".

"The process of joining the agreement has started at all levels of the state apparatus in South Sudan," Akec stated in a press conference on Wednesday.

Akec said South Sudan would implement the agreement as soon as parliament ratifies it.

If signed, South Sudan will be the seventh riparian country to sign the agreement on sharing the Nile waters.

Six other countries have already signed the agreement: Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Burundi.