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access
to
water
and
sanitation
for
all
non-inclusive and non-consensual framework. Nevertheless,
driven by its belief in the inclusiveness of the initiative, Egypt
has engaged in a consultative process to further address its
concerns and exchange views with other NBI member states
in order to seek ways for Egypt to resume its participation in
NBI activities on a permanent basis. Despite the challenges
and difficulties facing this process, Egypt is determined to
continue its efforts to restore inclusiveness to the NBI in
order to manage the transboundary waters of the Nile Basin
in accordance with the principles of international law, paving
the way to enhancing cooperation on the basin level. To this
end, Egypt believes that genuine cooperation among the Nile
Basin states should be based on the following pillars:
• All states should respect and uphold existing obligations
under international law, including the existing bilateral,
plurilateral and multilateral agreements
• The consensual decision-making process should form the
basis of the management of transboundary waters
• Riparian states should abstain from unilateral actions
that could harm other riparian states. The principle of
no-harm and timely prior-notification should be respected
where the construction of projects has cross-border
effects. In the case of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance
Dam (GERD), where Ethiopia failed to abide by the rele-
vant necessary legal process, Egypt entered into talks with
Ethiopia and Sudan, with the countries agreeing to form
a tripartite international panel of experts in 2013, and
a declaration of principles being signed in Khartoum in
2015. The three leaders met in Addis Ababa in January
2018 to address all differences related to the GERD and it
is hoped that a resolution is imminent.
• Riparian states should exert their utmost efforts to reach
an agreed definition of the equitable and reasonable utili-
sation that avoids causing harm to any of those states.
Finally, development partners and private sector actors
should promote the establishment of consensual institutional
arrangements to facilitate the management of transbound-
ary water resources. The United Nations should play a more
active role in facilitating and enhancing cooperation among
riparian states to enable them to achieve the agreed SDGs.
El-Salam mega pump station
Subsurface drainage network used to control the groundwater level and soil salinity
Image: MWRI
Image: MWRI