CAIRO—Seven African nations will sign a deal on sharing the Nile River waters without Egypt and Sudan, which are staying out of the accord, Egypt's state news agency reported Wednesday.
The report on the MENA news agency came a day after talks among 10 Nile basin nations meeting in Egypt failed to get an unanimous agreement on a redistribution of the river waters and administration of the longest river in the world.
Egypt categorically refuses any deal that would reduce its share of the Nile and give more access to other countries. It insists on maintaining its 55.5 billion cubic meters of water from the river -- more than half of the Nile's flow.
Egypt also wants veto power over any new irrigation projects undertaken by the other nine river states.
The Sub-Saharan African states have rejected the clause and called for new allocations of Nile water to reflect their burgeoning populations and industrial capacity
MENA said the seven African nations -- called source nations because their rivers flow into and make up the Blue Nile and White Nile that come together in Sudan's capital Khartoum -- would sign the agreement on May 14. It was unclear what effect, if any, the signing would have on actual water exploitation.
"The sources nations decided to go ahead with signing," the report said. "Egypt and Sudan decided to stay away."
Reda Bebres, a spokesman for Egypt's delegation, said the move to sign the deal was a "regrettable unilateral decision" by the other Nile basin nations.
Egypt's claim to Nile water is based on a 1929 agreement between Egypt and Great Britain on behalf of Britain's colonies which gave Egypt the right to most of the more than 100 billion cubic meters of water that reaches the downstream countries annually.
Egypt, a country of some 80 million people says if Egypt's annual share of Nile water remains at 55.5 billion cubic meters, per capita water availability will stand at around 630 cubic meters in 2025, compared with 1,213 in 1990.
The Nile Valley is a stretch running 660 miles long with a floodplain occupying 4,250 square miles. With mostly desert the majority of the population live in the Valley and the Nile Delta which spans some 8,500 square miles.
In addition to Egypt, the Nile basin group includes Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Eritrea has only an observer status within the group.
