Tanzania risks Egyptian ire over Nile waters
By Daniel Wallis
DAR ES SALAAM, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Tanzania appeared on a collision course with Egypt on Monday over the waters feeding the Nile, declaring it would use Lake Victoria to supply parched communities.
The announcement of the 170-km (105 mile) water pipeline project by Tanzania's water minister threatens to deepen a long-running dispute with Egypt, which says a colonial-era pact allows it to veto use of the Nile headwaters.
Tanzanian water minister Edward Lowasa said the pipeline would supply the towns of Kahama and Shinyanga and 24 villages in the country's arid northwest.
"These are people with no water," he told Reuters. "How can we do nothing when we have this lake just sitting there."
Work will begin on the $85 billion shilling ($78.7 million) project next month, he said. It is expected to be completed by late 2005 and to supply 940,000 users by 2025.
Under a 1929 pact between Egypt and Britain, acting on behalf of its then east African colonies, Egypt can veto any use of Lake Victoria water it feels threatens levels in the Nile.
The lake is the source of the White Nile and British explorer David Livingstone became the first white man to see the Victoria Falls in 1855.
Lowasa stressed the pipeline would not feed agricultural irrigation systems, which require huge amounts of water.
"The water will not be for irrigation," he said. "It will be for domestic use and livestock only."
Led by Kenya, the east African lands where the Nile originates have fiercely criticised a treaty that gives effective control to Egyptian users far downstream.
They say the accord was negotiated by foreign rulers without their best interests at heart.
Tanzania, an impoverished country of 35 million people, suffers recurrent droughts caused by inadequate rainfall, deforestation and soil erosion. It rejected the pact shortly after independence from Britain in 1961.
Egyptian officials say the Nile is crucial for Egypt's survival, and any change in its level could be disastrous.
Most Egyptians live in the Nile Valley on four percent of the country's land. Over 95 percent of Egypt's water resources come from the Nile.
The 6,741 km (4,189 mile)-long river is fed by the White Nile and the Blue Nile, which rises in Ethiopia.
Kenya plans a conference in March of governments belonging to a so-called Nile Basin Initiative -- Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, Uganda, Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo, Ethiopia and Eritrea -- to try to hammer out a peaceful solution between its members.
02/09/04 08:09 ET
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