Kampala (Alshahid) -About 10 years ago, an attempt to form a cooperation among Nile Basin countries was forged, but it has emerged that governments are curtailing the process of forming a unifying body.

The governments are accused of lack of political commitment to take on activities suggested by civil society organisations and lack of conducive environments for donors to offer money for development in the Nile Basin countries Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Uganda, Egypt and Sudan.

Egypt and Sudan have failed to sign the Cooperation Framework Agreement and are still bent on the colonial agreement that gives them ultimate powers over the Nile waters.

Speaking at the Regional Multi-stakeholder’s forum for Nile Basin countries in Kampala last week, the Executive Director of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), Dr Wael M. Khairy, said plans for hydro-power generation and agriculture had already been designed, but cannot be implemented because of bureaucracy and lack of commitment by governments.

No commitment

“It looks like the governments of the NBI have cars without drivers. We need governments to commit,” he said.

Dr Khairy said NBI could even get more financial support if a binding body- the Cooperative Framework Agreement, was sealed.

He predicted that the body could be able to raise up to $2.1 billion by 2015.

According to Mr Imeru Tarmret, a negotiator on the Ethiopian side, there was no coordination between activities of the Nile Basin countries, which makes it difficult to appreciate the benefits of the cooperation in trade, agriculture, energy and food security.(Africa Review)