302 Scarcity and SurfeitEthiopia's plans to use the Nile waters was politically motivated and not
based on any genuine need to do so. He attributes this to the instigation of
the United States during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie or the Soviet
Union during the military regime.21G
Past relationships between the basin states are marred by a lack of mutu-
al trust. Political alliances in the Cold War era have also stoked tensions
between the different basin states. Ethiopia's support of the Sudanese
People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and Sudan's support of the Eritrean Peoples
Liberation Front (EPLF) have also contributed to the postponement of nego-
tiations on the Nile. Moreover, even where Egypt and Sudan attempt to coop-
erate with Ethiopia in sharing the Nile waters, Ethiopia is deeply suspicious
because it feels that any agreement would favour the Egyptian and Sudanese
interests over Ethiopia's.
One of the basic objectives of the current Nile Basin Initiative, which is
discussed at length in the next section, is to build trust and confidence
among the Nile Basin states concerned.
Cooperative Efforts on the Nile
The first intergovernmental initiative to promote cooperation in the Nile
Basin was established in 1967. It was known as the Intergovernmental
Committee for the Hydro-Meteorological Survey of Lake Victoria, Kyoga and
Lake Albert (the Hydromet Project) and was funded by the UNDP. The basic
objective of the project was to collect and analyse hydrological and meteoro-
logical data in the Great Lakes catchment area. It also envisaged laying the
groundwork for intergovernmental cooperation in the storage, regulation and
use of Nile waters. All Nile Basin countries, except Ethiopia, were members
of this organisation, based in Entebbe, Uganda. Ethiopia joined Hydromet as
an observer in 1971. Ethiopia opted to remain an observer to the Hydromet
mainly because Egyptian and Sudanese interests dominated its agenda.
Hydromet did not discuss substantive issues, including the allocation of Nile
waters, or entitlements of upstream riparian countries to use Nile waters."'
The Hydromet ended in December 1992, because member states felt a need
to redefine the objective of future cooperation in the Nile Basin to the satis-
faction of all riparian countries in order to achieve a lasting basin-wide coop-
eration in allocation and use of Nile waters.
Following the Hydromet, the Technical Cooperation Committee for the
Promotion of the Development and Environmental Protection of the Nile
Basin (TECCONILE) was established in 1992 with the initial support of the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Egypt, Sudan, Tan-
zania, Uganda, Rwanda and Zaire were members, while the other four ripar-
ian countries, namely, Ethiopia, Kenya, Burundi and Eritrea participated as
observers. In conjunction with the establishment of the TECCONILE, a