[OPINION] – No Consensus Yet on Nile Water Deal

Egypt, Nile Leaders and the Water Sharing Dispute

The meeting between Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and other Nile Basin leaders in Uganda highlights the deep, long standing dispute over how to share the Nile’s water resources.

Purpose of the summit

The gathering in Entebbe was convened to address the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA), also called the Entebbe Agreement. This agreement seeks to establish a legal and institutional framework for the fair sharing of Nile waters.

Status of the CFA

The agreement was signed in 2010 by Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya, with Burundi joining in 2011. Egypt and Sudan, however, have refused to sign, mainly because they oppose provisions that would reduce their historically dominant share of the Nile’s waters.

Egypt’s position

Cairo argues that the CFA undermines the 1959 Nile Waters Agreement, signed between Egypt and Sudan, which allocates most of the river’s flow to the two countries. Egypt is instead pushing for a new agreement based on international law principles governing transboundary rivers: “fair and equitable use” and the obligation to cause “no significant harm.”

Next steps

Talks are expected to continue in Burundi at the next summit, though consensus remains far away.

The dispute is not only about water but also about regional power and influence. Ethiopia’s massive Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has already shifted the balance, as upstream countries demand more water rights. Egypt’s alternative proposal may be an attempt to avoid the CFA’s reallocation provisions while still keeping dialogue open.

Even so, the fact that President Museveni, President Sisi, and Ethiopia’s leaders sat together is itself significant. It signals that all sides prefer to keep negotiations alive rather than risk letting tensions escalate into open confrontation.

Malek Deng Arop is a South Sudanese commentator.