Africa shares views on water
2003-09-11 12:07
Addis Ababa - Water ministers from 19 countries have agreed on the need for the equitable use of water resources in Africa's three river basins - Senegal, Zambezi and the Nile.
Ethiopian water minister Shiferaw Jarso said on Wednesday at the end of a two-day conference: "The main agenda of the meeting was to share experience on the three basins to meet our goals of equitable utilisation of water for our future integration and co-operation in water resources and beyond."
"The global climatic changes and the subsequent losses affect all of us, as we all have a mutual interest to exchange experience and need to well manage our water resources, which need huge investments."
Egyptian water and irrigation minister Mahmoud Abu-Zeid said: "we have all agreed we will start with projects which do not cause any harm to others."
Abu-Zeid said projects like irrigation and hydropower in Ethiopia would benefit not only Sudan and Egypt, but other countries as well.
Building trust and understanding
Uganda's water minister, Maria Mutagamba, said: "Some of the problems faced in the past were to know the equitable share of every country and the problem of financing the projects, but this has now been solved by getting international support."
Ethiopia, which contributes more than 85% of water to the Nile River, has been at loggerheads with Egypt and the Sudan about distribution of the resources.
At present, the three countries - Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt - with the support of international financial institutions, have engaged in continuous consultations to build trust and understanding, as well as develop some projects on selected areas along the Nile.
The two-day talks were sponsored by the African Development Bank (AfDB), United Nations Development Porgramme (UNDP) and the World Bank.
Member nations include Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Donors are Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, European Commission and International Monetary Fund.
Others taking part in the talks included the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) and Southern African Development Community (SADC).