30 July - 5 August 2012 - orsam

Nile Basin Countries Concerned by Israel-South Sudan Water Agreement
Israel, JERUSALEM — The pact signed last week between Israel and South Sudan to cooperate on
water infrastructure and technology development has some Nile Basin countries concerned about
their water security.
The agreement, signed in Jerusalem by Israel Military Industries Ltd. and the government of South
Sudan, offers Israel‘s assistance to the new state on projects such as desalination, irrigation, water
transport and water purification, according to Israel‘s Energy and Water Ministry.
About 45 percent of the Nile Basin‘s water is in South Sudan‘s territory, with 28 percent of the
river‘s water flowing through it downstream to Sudan and Egypt. A large part of that is essentially
untapped, as more than half of the Nile‘s water is reportedly lost to evaporation and transpiration in
the swamps of the Sudd region of South Sudan.
The agreement comes against the backdrop of tensions over water issues between Egypt and Sudan,
which take the lion‘s share of the Nile‘s waters, and other Nile Basin countries including Ethiopia,
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Eritrea, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. A 1959
pact allocated an annual 55.5 billion cubic meters of Nile water to Egypt and 18.5 billion cubic
meters to Sudan.
Dr. Irit Back of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East and Africa Studies at Tel Aviv University
said the agreement reflected Israel‘s long-term foreign policy of establishing diplomatic ties with
African countries.
Israel‘s water technology could assist South Sudan to grow from subsistence farming to a more
developed economy, and a strong South Sudan, as an Israeli ally, would place a check on Sudan and
Egypt, particularly where water security is concerned.
While no official projects have been announced, the offer of desalination technology has raised
questions since South Sudan is land-locked.
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