Picture: MoFAAddis Abeba – Demeke Mekonnen, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, called on all the Nile Basin riparian states to “expedite the coming into force of” the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA). The CFA “outlines principles, rights and obligations for cooperative management and development of the Nile Basin water resources.”FM Demeke made the remark at a three-day first regional high-level conference of the Nile Upper Reparian Countries cooperation conference, which kicked off in Addis Abeba today, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Minister of Water and Energy, Habtamu Itefa, State Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Tesfaye and Ambassador Birtukan Ayano, Deputy Mayor of Addis Abeba City, Zantirar Abay, as well as delegates from Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and South Sudan, and representatives from various water institutes and high-level guests are attending the conference. The Nile river, which supplies livelihood to millions of people who live along its banks in Ethiopia alone, and accounts for two-thirds of the country’s surface water, Demeke said. “Unfortunately, a pure development project with clear targets for clean energy production has been subjected to undue politicization and pressure, even though it does not entail any significant harm to any riparian country,” he said, further adding: “this is yet another indication of why we need to expedite the setting up of a basin wide legal and institutional framework.”In this regard, I would like to seize this opportunity to call on riparian states to expedite the coming into force of the CFA, which would undoubtedly address problems in a lasting manner, he added.

Source: Ethiopian News September 05, 2022 23:03 UTC