Revisit Nile Treaty to boost L. Victoria Basin supply chain

By OTIENO PANYA

February saw the mass resignation of senior State officers for political offices, especially the governors’ seat. The law requires that State and public officers must resign at least six months before a General Election. Those seeking public offices must do so with a clear intent of putting the country’s interest first.

Kenya today has pressing geopolitical, environmental, economic, social and diplomatic issues that those seeking higher public offices ought to address, key among them are ethnic bigotry, runaway youth unemployment and diplomatic issues such as the Nile Treaty, which has stifled the economic development of the Lake Victoria basin region for several years.

The Nile Treaty of 1929 negotiated between Britain on behalf of East African colonies on one side and Sudan and Egypt on the other, saw Cairo handed exclusive rights to veto any large-scale project in River Nile resources, which include the Lake Victoria basin.

Not only were other upstream riparian countries not included in this pact but it also stipulated that the states could not undertake without permission any development on the tributaries, distributaries or lakes that would alter the Nile flows to Egypt.

This treaty forbids any projects such as the building of dams, irrigation, hydroelectric power generation, commercial fishing, aquaculture and nautical tourism that could threaten the volume of water reaching Egypt.

In 1990, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda formed the Nile Basin Initiative to ensure a more equitable sharing of the Nile waters. Despite such partnerships, the challenges of the sustainable use of the Nile resources remain unresolved.

The recent dispute that started from the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and other related rows are indications of pending issues that the riparian states should address.

Lake Victoria Basin supports more than 30 million people. According to United Nations Development Programme, the livelihoods of people in the basin is closely linked to the quality and integrity of the resource base such as the land and fisheries.

The Lake Victoria Basin has a lot of untapped potential including fishing resources, rich agricultural lands, a favourable climate and virgin tourist attraction sites, accounting for more than $40 billion of East African Communities’ combined wealth of about $74.3 billion.

However, the rapid population growth is piling pressure on the lake resources.

The Vision 2030’s third Medium Term Plan (2018-2022), envisage an increase of the manufacturing share of gross domestic product from 9.2 percent to 15 percent and agro-processing to at least 50 percent of total agricultural output, enhancing food and nutrition security through construction of large-scale multi-purpose and smaller dams for irrigation projects, construction of food storage facilities and implementation of high-impact nutritional interventions and to irrigate 1.2 million acres to expand the total area under crop production.

These initiatives may just be a pipe dream without the consideration of the input of the Lake Victoria basin.