IWC6 Coming Soon!
October 17 to 20 in Croatia – UBC Project presenting 4 workshop sessions. See details at http://iwlearn.net/abt_iwlearn/events/iwc6
Controversy over Canada – US Water Deal
Osoyoos Lake on the border of B.C and Washington State has a water-sharing agreement with the U.S. under the 1909 Boundary Water Treaty. The agreement is up for renewal, and a proposal to guarantee water flows to the U.S. is drawing fire from Okanagan residents.
Fears are surfacing in British Columbia over a call to guarantee water flows to the U.S. under an international agreement controlling Osoyoos Lake levels. The International Joint Commission, a Canadian-U.S. entity established under the 1909 Boundary Water Treaty, will be meeting next week to discuss the terms of an agreement which expires in 2013. There is also concern the agreement, which had a 25-year term, could be renewed in perpetuity as is more common in other similar Canada-U.S. water contracts.
More news on the Nile Basin
Nile Basin Countries to Hold Exceptional Meeting on Entebbe TreatyCAIRO, EGYPT (OOSKAnews Correspondent)— 1 August 2011 – 09:00 – Nile Basin countries will hold an exceptional meeting in October to discuss the ramifications of the Entebbe agreement signed by six member countries last year.
The decision, made during the Nile Basin Ministerial Meeting that concluded in Nairobi on July 30, came following a request made by downstream countries Egypt and Sudan.
The two downstream countries objected to upstream countries’ signing of the accord in Entebbe, Uganda. Egypt and Sudan object that the agreement does not include their historical right to Nile water, which was part of the 1959 Nile water agreement.
“Egypt sees this exceptional meeting as an opportunity to suggest more ideas with the aim of reaching solutions that appeal to all the Nile Basin countries,” Egypt’s new minister of irrigation and water resources, Hisham Qandil, said following the meeting.
Egypt and Sudan said that they objected to the agenda of the ministerial meeting in Nairobi, calling for discussions of the legal ramifications of the Entebbe treaty.
“Disputes can only be solved through dialog and consultations,” Qandil said at a press conference in Cairo before the Nairobi ministerial meeting.
“Egypt and Sudan are coordinating with each other on [the Entebbe agreement] through continuous consultations,” he added.
Qandil also said a tripartite committee formed by the Ethiopian prime minister to assess the impact of the Renaissance Dam would convene this month in Cairo.
However, some experts said construction of the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia would benefit both Sudan and Egypt.
“I don’t see a real point in the dispute between Ethiopia and the downstream countries, Sudan and Egypt,” said Sudanese water expert Said al Din Hamad, member of the Nile Basin Negotiating Committee and the Egyptian-Sudanese Joint Technical Committee.
“The construction of dams in Ethiopia will unlock the potentials of generating abundant amounts of electricity, which Sudan and Egypt can benefit from,” he said.
Dam construction in Ethiopia will also help reduce the amount of sediment in the river, which will reduce the water storage capacity of dams in both Egypt and Sudan, according to Hamad.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has added its voice to the criticism of Ethiopia’s planned Gibe III hydropower project, calling for work to be suspended until the negative impacts of the dam have been identified.
The World Heritage Committee said the dam’s construction would endanger Lake Turkana.
Weekly water report on international water and development
Water news. Water knowledge. Water insight – OOSKA News. See website for weekly global news on international water issues:
http://www.ooskanews.com/
South Sudan – What will it mean for the Nile’s Hydropolitical Crossroads
On the 9th of July, 2011 the Republic of South Sudan became the newest country in the world and the 55th independent state in Africa, after a complex political process that started when the continent was experiencing its first waves of independence and lasted more than half a century. SIWI’s Ana Cascao reflects on the potential effects of South Sudan’s independence on hydropolitics in the Nile Basin. See here http://www.siwi.org/sa/node.asp?node=52&sa_content_url=%2Fplugins%2FResources%2Fresource%2Easp&id=259
