Nile binds

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Nurturing Our Partnership for Prosperity was the theme of the 17th Annual Nile Council of Ministers which convened in Alexandria on 27-28 July. The meeting was a golden opportunity to demonstrate that the future prosperity of Nile Basin countries lies in closer cooperation. Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Nasreddin Allam stressed there was no intrinsic rivalry between upstream non-Arab African nations and downstream Arab African countries like Egypt and Sudan. Countries of the Nile Basin share a common heritage and a common future based on mutual cooperation.

There are those who claim there is a clash of interests between the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan and those upstream. However, it is becoming ever clearer that the prosperity of the region is dependent on the degree of economic cooperation between the Nile Basin countries. They must together harness the wealth the river provides.

The Nile Council of Ministers is the perfect forum for forging ties of friendship and fraternity between the countries of the region. The Nile Basin's Socio-Economic Development and Benefit Sharing Framework is a project that deserves closer examination and needs to be taken more seriously. Egypt must begin to look southwards instead of eastwards and northwards. The prosperity of Egypt, to a great measure, depends on its capacity to develop closer economic and trade ties with the countries to its south. Africa is the continent of the future, and Egypt is an African country poised to play a greater role in African affairs.

Africa is a continent of tremendous economic potential, and the Nile Basin countries, in spite of the abject poverty many of them find themselves in, have tremendous resources. Irrigation and hydro-electric schemes, if managed properly, can prove to be the key for the region's prosperity.

The Nile is Egypt's lifeline; without the Nile there would have been no Egypt. While some other Nile Basin nations have alternative water resources, Egypt has none. Egypt is almost exclusively dependent on the Nile for its water supplies in agriculture, industry, tourism and household usage. Egypt has technical capabilities that some other Nile Basin countries lack, and it is in Egypt's interest to accelerate the pace of development in the countries of the Nile Basin. As these countries develop and prosper so Egypt, too, will flourish. Indeed, developing the economies of Nile Basin countries can become the engine of growth for the Egyptian economy. Gone are the days when the overriding political philosophy was "beggar thy neighbour". Today we know better. The rallying cry of a "United Nile Basin" cannot be dismissed as a merely histrionic gesture.

The Alexandria meeting gave an inkling of what true cooperation is. No one Nile Basin country has the upper hand; all work in tandem to create a more prosperous economic future. The region is locked in a battle to accelerate the pace of social and economic development and the Eternal River is the key to fulfilling the aspiration of the people of the Nile Basin.