His Excellence Dr. Mohamed Nasr El-Din Allam, Minister of Water and Irrigation of Egypt and Chairperson of the Nile Council of Ministers, opened the first meeting between the Members of the Nile Technical Advisory Committee and the Negotiators.   The gathering which will be held from 28 to 29 September 2009, is a follow-up meeting of the 17th Nile Council of Ministers Meeting held in July 2009 in Alexandria, Egypt.  

 

The two-day meeting, which is taking place at the Speke Resort-Munyonyo in Kampala, Uganda, is expected to discuss and advise the Nile Basin Ministers in charge of Water on procedures for the signing of the River Nile Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA).

Participants are drawn from the nine Nile Basin countries including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

In her welcoming remarks, Ms. Henriette Ndombe, Executive Director of the Nile Basin Initiative, highlighted the importance of the meeting in shaping the future of the Nile cooperation and appealed to participants to devise feasible options/proposals for the finalization of the Cooperative Framework Agreement.  She also reiterated the call of the NILE-COM desire to move forward in the spirit of cooperation on the basis of One Nile, One Basin, and One Vision.  

Honorable Maria Mutagamba, Minister of Water and Environment of Uganda and Host NILE-COM Member urged participants to address concerns so as to increase the trust and confidence of all countries as far as regional cooperation is concerned.  She also implored both Negotiators and Members of the Nile Technical Advisory Committee to seek practical solutions to resolving pending issues on water security.  Honorable Mutagamba finally told participants that the establishment of the Cooperative Framework Agreement is the core element to secure wide-basin regional cooperation.

 “We are gathered here today for the first meeting of the planned road-map toward finalization of the Cooperative Framework Agreement of our mutual regional cooperation on our common water resource the Nile River – the gift from our GOD”, H.E. Dr. Mohamed Nasr El-Din Allam told the participants.  He then reaffirmed his country’s strong commitment to cooperate with all the Nile Basin States, to resolve the pending issues of the Cooperative Framework in a view to establishing a commission for the basin that includes all countries and reflects all their interests and concerns.
Dr. Mohamed Nasr El-Din Allam also expressed satisfaction for the continuous and sincere cooperation as he referred to the 17th ordinary NILE-COM meeting that recently took place in Alexandria, Egypt.  The positive results and outcomes of the meeting give a strong proof that the Nile Basin countries are working together with a prevailing spirit of cooperation and moving forward inclusively and collectively to achieve a better future for the people of the region based on the “win-win principle, he added.  He ended his remarks by revealing a road-map for further discussion during the meeting as follows: (1) the first NILE-TAC and Negotiation Committee meeting that is taking place today; (2) A second NILE-TAC and Negotiation Committee meeting to be held in Dar es Salaam in mid-December 2009 back-to-back with the Nile Basin Initiative Showcase event; and (3) A third NILE-TAC and Negotiation Committee meeting to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt during the last week of February 2010.

Daniel MASSAMBA MEBOYA
Public Information/Communication Specialist