The six Nile Basin countries that have signed the new Nile treaty will meet in Rwanda on July 7 to review the progress each nation has made in the ratification process meant to give them greater access to the waters.

Once Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Ethiopia ratify the treaty, it will become law despite opposition from Egypt and Sudan.

According to the Director of Water Resources at the Kenyan Ministry of Water, and Irrigation, John Nyaoro, the treaty will become operational once six countries have ratified the treaty and forwarded their instruments to the African Union Commission.

The new River Nile Treaty would allow the countries greater use of the Nile waters, replacing the 1959 accord between Egypt and Sudan that gave Egypt the right to use 85 per cent of Nile waters.

The Independence of South Sudan is likely to complicate the issue further, with both sides seeking to sway the newly independent state to their side.

In the run-up to the South Sudan referendum in 2011, Egypt tried to lure Juba out of the secession with grants and infrastructure projects out of fear that the Nile waters situation would become more complex because Egypt was not likely to influence a new African state along the Nile like they did with Khartoum.

In an effort to persuade the South Sudanese to vote for unity, Egypt offered many goodies, which included building multiple electricity plants, a branch of Alexandria University, and a hospital in Juba.

According to David Amuor Majur, the humanitarian affairs attaché at the South Sudan  embassy in Uganda, the newly independent South Sudan, excluded from the negotiations of the new treaty, must first study the treaty to decide whether it favours its interests or not.

Mr Majur confirmed that Egypt was concerned that an independent South would upset the 1959 arrangements.  But he pointed out that one of the reasons the South went to war in 1983, was because Egypt had started to dredge the Jonglei Canal to divert water through the vast Sudd wetlands of South Sudan so as to deliver more water downstream to Sudan and Egypt for agriculture.

By 1984 when the Sudan People’s Liberation Army brought the works to a halt, 240 km of the canal of a total of 360 km had been excavated. Currently, South Sudan, with the longest and the deepest section of the Nile, plans to use the Nile waters for irrigation, transport and tourism. The Sudd region contains the oldest species of crocodiles in the world.

The new treaty will enable upstream countries to enjoy equitable sharing of the waters of the Nile and engage in irrigation and hydroelectric power projects, while depriving Egypt of the veto power it was given in 1929.

Egypt argues that without an alternative source of water, the country will likely experience water shortages by 2017 if the riparian countries initiate major irrigation and hydroelectric power projects. But the treaty states that there would be consultations with Egypt and Sudan before any project is initiated.

According to Mr Nyaoro, the signing of the treaty is just an indication that a country wants to be part of the Nile River Basin Co-operative Framework Agreement. Egypt, Sudan, DRC, South Sudan, and Eritrea are yet to sign the treaty.

In Kenya, the instrument is currently before the Cabinet.