Sharing the Pie in the Eastern Nile Basin

The historical and hydropolitical row is one of the cutting edge challenges posed on the exploration and the exploitation of the Nile waters resource for the common good of the people of the basin states. The advocacy of a unilateral interest as opposed to a multilateral approach in tapping and sharing the pie of the Nile waters has been the hallmark of the Nile waters politics. Entangled with a unilateral perspective over the use of the Nile waters, the basin states had no options but to easily fall pray to a zero-sum-game predicament. This legacy has reigned over the hydropolitics of the basin for many decades. In brief, the tug of war had been between the desire to sustain the status quo by downstream riparians and the quest for the revision of the status quo by upstream riparians. To break this impasse, bringing the concept of benefit sharing in to the Nile Basin discourse is of at most importance. However; the challenge still remains as to how to ensure the distributive justice of the diverse benefits that the basin can offer.

Autorentext

Mr Mulualem Fetene has obtained his LLM Degree in Public International Law from Addis Ababa University in 2009. Currently, he is a Legal Consultant and Attorney-at-Law in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia