Egypt in charm offensive over River Nile saga

Business

By Noel Wandera

On the face of it, the Nile Basin tournament, which ended last Monday in Cairo, was just another football competition.

But a closer look at the tournament that brought together seven countries – Egypt, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya and DRC –reveals Egypt's desire to court countries along the River Nile over the utilisation of its water.

It once again reveals the power of sport in enhancing co-operation and solving disputes among countries.

Egypt has had almost exclusive rights to use of the Nile waters but countries that share the river’s basin have in the recent past been demanding that a new quota be set on the use the water of Africa’s longest river.

Last May, five of the nine Nile Basin countries – Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, and Kenya †signed a new treaty in Kampala †sanctioning each state to use their share of Nile Waters for irrigation and other development

priorities.

As would be expected, Egypt, which depends almost entirely on the Nile for its water needs, termed the pact illegal. Of the Nile Basin countries, only Sudan supported Egypt’s position.

Their Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Mohammed Allam warned it was a matter of national security, vowing that Egypt would defend her historical right to use the Nile. But he was quick to clarify that this would not include going to war.

Instead of directly complaining or attacking the Kampala treaty,†Cairo has gone on a charm offensive of sorts in a bid to woo the other countries on Nile so that they do not interfere with their allocation of the water.

According to Dave Arunga, Kenya’s Ambassador in Egypt, †the North African

country is keen to assure its citizens that all is well on the use of the Nile and are using various strategies to achieve this, including sports, trade and education.

"Egypt was uncomfortable with some part of the agreement signed in Kampala and is keen to assure citizens that all is well. This is seen in its efforts to engage with the affected states on various fronts," said Arunga.

He, however, says countries such as Kenya stand to benefit from the efforts since Egypt has a large consumer market.

"This is a country with 80million people and represent a large consumer market for Kenyan goods. Kenyan tea is currently doing well here and local†meat is also being exported to Egypt," he said.

And he added: "Apart from trade we have also opened co-operation in the education sector

and sports hence the Nile Basin tournament."

Egypt did not spare any efforts to make the inaugural Nile Basin tournament success. The Egyptian Government, through the Egyptian Football Association, who organises the tournament, paid air tickets, accommodation, local transport and allowances for all visiting teams.

Over and above that, there was an attractive Sh30 million prize money on offer for the top three teams in the competition.

The Egypt FA President, Samir Zahar, was however, quick to distance the tournament from political inclinations at a press conference to announce the prize money.

"For us,†it is purely football and an opportunity to give teams in the region good preparations for their Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers," he

said and cheekily added, "but maybe the Ministry of †Foreign Affairs will want to look at it differently."

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