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Museveni Rejects Egypt Monopoly Over R. Nile

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
April 2, 2004
Posted to the web April 2, 2004

By Badru D. Mulumba & Halimah Abdallah
Kampala
President Museveni yesterday rejected the broad powers Egypt holds over the
waters of the Nile.
President Yoweri Museveni (R) with his Nigerian counterpart Gen. Olusegun
Obasanjo (L) leaving Speak Resort Munyonyo after opening the Food-Security
workshop on April 1 (Photo by Wandera w' Ouma).
Speaking publicly for the first time since the debate over the Nile waters
broke out several months ago, Mr Museveni declared invalid the agreement Egypt
signed with the British in 1929 giving it broad control over River Nile, whose
source is in Jinja.
"Those were the British; they were not ourselves," Mr Museveni said at a news
conference in Kampala.
"Egypt has no right to monopolise the use of the Nile water for irrigation. It
cannot deprive others from using it."
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo stood beside Museveni at the news
conference, which came after he opened an All Africa Conference on Food
Security at Speke Resort Munyonyo yesterday.
Not for sale
Museveni equally rejected calls by members of Parliament for Uganda to sell the
Nile waters the way Arabs sell oil to us.
In February, MPs endorsed a motion repudiating the colonial agreements
restricting Uganda's use of the Nile waters and upheld a proposal that Sudan
and Egypt pay Uganda for using those waters.
Egypt is also required to pay £500,000 to Uganda in compensation for raising
the lake's water levels as stipulated in a 1950 agreement.
But said Museveni: "Some MPs have taken the role of foreign affairs which
should be for the President. They want to sell water.
Water is not like oil, which is a source for energy, water is unique, it is
life. I do not agree with them. I don't want to associate myself with [a]
childish demand.
"[We will] sit down and work out a new arrangement, which is equitable. No one
wants Egypt to starve."
Attorney General Francis Ayume supported the MPs' resolution to reject the 1929
agreement.
The MPs cited other Nile basin countries such as Kenya and Tanzania, which have
all weaned themselves of the agreements.
They also recommended that Egypt and Sudan contribute to the maintenance of
Lake Victoria.
This includes sustaining the lake through stopping deforestation, wetland
degradation, soil erosion and weed infestation.
Earlier in the year, 10 countries of the Nile basin held a closed door
conference at Entebbe to discuss the issues of Nile, but did not reach a
resolution.
A similar meeting for ministers was held in Nairobi last month.
No GM foods
Museveni also said that Uganda will not import genetically modified seeds for
fear they could contaminate other crops.
He said that a cotton processor in the United States told him that GM cotton,
for instance, gets easily spoilt at processing level.
But he added that processed GM foods can be imported.
"It is a double track we are taking," he said.
The news conference came immediately after the Presidents, including Mr
Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, opened the conference on 'Assuring Food and
Nutrition Security in Africa by 2020'.
The International Food Policy Research Institute organised the conference,
which runs up to April 3.
An estimated 40 million children in Africa will be undernourished by 2020.
No future for peasants
Museveni said that the NRM vision is to transform peasants into a middle class.
"In our political organisation - the Movement - we believe that peasants should
be phased out in Africa," he said.
"Africa should not be a land of peasants. There were peasants in Europe; they
were phased out. But in Africa, we continue to have the biggest number of
peasants."
Museveni said that his father, Mzee Amos Kaguta, has been farming since 1926
and getting little out of it.
"I agree with President Museveni that we need commercial farmers," Gen.
Obasanjo said. "But we can't just throw away the peasant farmers."
He said that commercial farmers must work side by side with the peasants.
"Then, the peasants will die away - and I hope they die away," said Obasanjo.
"Your father will die [away]. You will be a much better farmer than your
father."
Museveni once again welcomed Agoa and Europe's Everything But Arms policies for
giving increased market access to Africa.
Wade said that absence of infrastructure is partly to blame for malnutrition in
Africa. But he said that donors are reluctant to fund infrastructure
development in Africa under the New Partnership for African Development.
Of the donors, Canada ($600 million), US, UK (£350 million), EU ($2 billion),
India ($200 million), and Japan ($1.6 billion) - only Japan's grant is for
building infrastructure.
Wade, Obasanjo, and South Africa's Thabo Mbeki were the Nepad architects.
"How can we, a very hard working population, but also with over 70 percent of
the population in agriculture - still suffer deficiencies in food and
nutrition?" Obasanjo wondered.

   

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