Focusing on the positive aspects

No reference to ENTRO

By Joseph R. Ameen

From the outset, I am sure that all of us agree that water is life, not only for Egypt but also for allover the world. Hence cooperation in the field of water recourses management is pivotal in any collaboration between neighboring riparian countries. That is why Ethiopia and Egypt have embarked on a serious cooperation effort. This cooperation takes place on a bilateral level as well as on a regional multilateral approach in the framework of the Nile Basin Initiative. The current initiative "NBI" (Nile Basin Initiative) is different from others in the past NBI has in its membership all the concerned nations while the previous ones did not include all of them as members. Though I it could be rather pre-mature to judge now on how "NBI" is functioning, being relatively "Young" yet it has been judged very promising in most experts views. I would like to remind the readers that Addis Ababa witnessed last Dec. 2003 a high level meeting between all concerned officials and the outcome of that meeting was definitely positive .
The said initiative is not the only one in the continent. If the previous Nile groupings were not crowned by complete success, it would be more beneficial for all parties to take lessons and try to improve the performance of the new one. It is much better to think positively about cooperation for development rather than focusing on conflicts and divergent points of view. In this respect, recall that according to the experts the loss in water resources of the River Nile is more than 1500 Milliard Cubic Meters, so we have to put hands in hands to find ways and means for making use of such huge quantity of non-utilized waters. Further more, Egypt stands ready to contribute technically in any developmental projects within the NBI and under the supervision of the concerned international institutions.
To my surprise I in some inaccurate articles published lately there were no reference to the ENTRO grouping (Easter Nile Technical Regional Office) based in Addis Ababa that include Ethiopia and Sudan in addition to Egypt. ENTRO is implementing projects which will be of common interest for the three countries, with international support especially from Finland.
In particular, within the context of the relations between Ethiopia and Egypt, I would like to draw the attention to the constructive steps that have been undertaken recently between the two countries at all levels. That started by the summit meeting between the leaders of the two states (Mubark-Zenawi) in July 1993 alongside the then OAU summit I and the consultations are still going on , the last round of which was the visit of H.E. Mr. Seyoum Mesfin, the Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs to Egypt and its fruitful conclusions, which took place in Dec. 2003 .
Recalling some alleged threats from a distant past, overlooks the different political environment prevailing at that time between the Derg Regime and Egypt. Such references aim only at disturbing the steadily increasing cooperation between the two countries nowadays.
Finally, since President Mubark came to office in Oct. 1981, he spared no effort in adopting peaceful and cooperative relationships with the whole world. Ethiopia has a very particular respect and estimation from the Egyptian people and government. Bilateral cooperation between Egypt and Ethiopia now covers- among other things- areas of irrigation, drainage, groundwater and training.
It should be recalled that there are 1600 billion cubic meter that flow in the river basin only 4% of it is used ,the 96% is lost. Only cooperative efforts of the Eastern Nile Basin Countries can make the maximum use of the river and take full advantage from its enormous potentials.
At last, I would like to emphasize that it's more useful that media from both side focus on the positive aspects in order to create a healthy environment for development in both countries.