Minister of Information Michael Makuei Lueth - Photo: Awan Moses/Eye Radio

South Sudan’s Minister of Information said Friday that Juba abstained from signing the 1929 Nile Waters Agreement despite being pressed by Egypt in the June 2023 water conference in Cairo.

Michael Makuei said many of the Nile countries are now abandoning the century-old agreement because it was signed by Egypt and Britain at a time when most of them were not yet independent.

South Sudan Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Pal Mai Deng gave a report of the Global Assembly of the African Minister’s Council of Water Resources, after representing the country.

Addressing the press after the Council of Ministers meeting on August 4, Makuei said most African countries did not agree on renewing the agreement.

“This conference was called and after thorough discussion, most of the African countries that attended the conference could not agree, and the minister (of Water Resources) had a very clear stand on all these issues,” Makuei said.

“It was decided, yes, there is need for the Egyptians to see more, because they were pressing us to sign the agreement on water basin initiative and of course we have not signed it.”

“The agreement, which was signed in 1929, and when they [Egyptians] signed it with Khartoum, Khartoum was not even independent. It was a colony and as such, that agreement is not binding on us, and we have to decide on that issue.”

“Even South Sudan was not born. But they have been using this agreement as a basis for settling the water dispute with Ethiopia.”

The Nile Water Agreement of May 9, 1929, recognizes that the Sudan needs more water for its development, and that Egypt has historic rights in the Nile waters.

The agreement allowed the entire average annual flow of the Nile to be shared among the Sudan and Egypt at 18.5 and 55.5 billion cubic meters, respectively.

In July 2023, an Ethiopian diplomat called on the South Sudan parliament to ratify the Nile Basin Initiative and Cooperative Framework Agreement to claim its share of the Nile water, including building its own dam.  

Fesseha Shawel, the former Ethiopian Ambassador to South Sudan, said the 1959 Nile Water Agreement between Egypt and Sudan unfairly gives a larger share of the water to the two downstream nations, although the Nile is shared by 10 countries.

Mr. Shawel, also the Director for African Affairs, said this leaves the rest of the countries with limited rights to utilize the Nile water.