Tanzania is not bound by a treaty, signed in 1929 when the east African country was under British colonial rule, that requires it to seek permission from Egypt to use water from Lake Victoria, the government insisted on Sunday.
Tanzanian Water and Livestock Development Minister Edward Lowassa said the country’s founding president, Julius Nyerere, had told the United Nations in 1962 he rejected the Nile Waters Agreement and that position still held.
”This is still the official stand of the government today on this treaty,” said Lowassa, adding that Tanzania would continue using water from Lake Victoria for domestic purposes and livestock.
”We are instead going to continue dialogue with Nile Basin member countries on equitable use of the natural water resource,” he said.
The 10 countries of the Nile Basin are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.
Tanzania, which is south of Lake Victoria, has been reminded it must seek Cairo’s permission before implementing plans to draw water from the lake for its semi-arid northern regions of Shinyanga and Kahama.
But it has vowed not to do so and recently signed an agreement with a Chinese firm to construct a pipeline that will take water from the lake to 420 000 residents of two major towns in the north.
”We will only use 1 250 litres of water per second from the lake. And that is a small amount for it will not affect users in other parts of the Nile,” Lowassa said.
The Nile Waters Agreement was signed in 1929 between Britain and Egypt and requires all British colonies around Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile River, to seek Cairo’s permission for large-scale exploitation of the lake’s waters so that the level of the river is not affected. – Sapa-AFP