The Sudd wetland in South Sudan's River Nile. | File/courtesy

The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said South Sudan will ratify the Nile Agreement to enable the country to claim its share of water in Africa’s longest river.

Deng Dau Deng made the remarks upon arrival from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa – where he had traveled to attend the Nile Basin Conference.

The conference on Equitable Utilization of Water Resources that took place on June 23, 2023, brought together foreign and water ministers from the region.

It discussed ways in which countries can share the Nile water for their mutual benefit without descending into conflicts.

Speaking to reporters at Juba Airport, Dau said the Nile water could be positively exploited to reduce poverty, promote economic growth, and reverse environmental degradation.

“We discussed, in particular, reasonable and equitable utilization of water resources. We talked about how the countries of the Nile basin can make use of resources of the Nile to benefit the basin countries,” he said.

The high-level ministerial round-table was attended by foreign and water ministers from the IGAD states including Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.

According to the acting foreign minister, the conference urged Nile countries who are yet to join the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) to discuss its ratification.

Dau said South Sudan is among four countries that are yet to claim their share of the Nile water.

“Four countries have signed but the other six have not yet signed. South Sudan is among the countries that are yet to ratify. The agreement was taken to parliaments, and they called on the countries that did not sign to address it.”

The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is a regional intergovernmental partnership that seeks to develop the River Nile in a cooperative manner, share substantial socio-economic benefits, and promote regional peace and security.

It was launched on 22nd February 1999 by Ministers in charge of Water Affairs in the riparian countries

The body is an intergovernmental partnership of 10 Nile Basin countries, namely Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Eritrea participates as an observer.

South Sudan was admitted to the NBI by the Nile Council of Ministers during their 20 regular meeting held on 5 July 2012 in Kigali, Rwanda.

Geographically, the country falls (98 percent) within the River Nile Basin and experts believe South Sudan’s growth and prosperity are linked to the developments within the River Nile Basin.

However, Juba has not been able to assert its rights over the Nile and stayed out of a brewing geopolitical tension between the Nile countries particularly Egypt and Ethiopia about the sharing of the Nile water.

This is due to a colonial-era agreement of 1929, reviewed in 1959, which gives both Sudan and Egypt a near-monopoly of the exploitation of the waters.

South Sudan’s rights over the Nile were not taken into account on March 23, 2015, Khartoum declaration dubbed the Nile Agreement signed by leaders of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan.

The agreement, which was expected to end conflicts over the sharing of the waters of the Nile River, only discussed ways to resolve the decision by Ethiopia to construct a 4.2 billion mega-dam on the Blue Nile.