Prof. Tag Elkhazin is an Associate Professor at Carleton University, one of the most prestigious institutions in Canada. He is also a member of the African Study Group and a member of the Board of Directors of the Archaeological Institute of America. He has been following up on political, social, and technical issues in South Sudan since May 1972, especially the Nile waters and climate change. He trained and worked across the world in Water Resources, Human Resources, and Implementation of Infra Structural and Energy Projects. He trained in Strategic Studies, Peace Building, and Alternative Dispute Resolution in the United Kingdom and Canada.
In this exclusive interview with Radio Tamazuj, the scholar says it is a disgrace that the capital city of South Sudan which produces 160,000 barrels of crude oil has no piped water distribution system. He argues that if the country’s leaders scrap unnecessary exorbitant foreign trips, all suburbs of Juba City can easily connected to piped water and the 10 months’ salary arrears of government employees would be cleared.
Prof. Elkhazin also contends that a conflict with Egypt has already started with the signing of the Cooperative Framework Agreement of the Nile Basin Initiative by President Salva Kiir and that there is a new dimension that is brewing in the Horn of Africa and with a new alliance between Egypt, Eritrea, and Somalia.
Below are edited excerpts:
Q: What can you tell us about climate change in South Sudan and some of the treaties regarding the waters of the Nile River?
A: Thank you for having me. My body is in Canada but my heart is in South Sudan.
If you are referring to the Cooperative Framework Agreement of the Nile Basin Initiative, this is an old file that has been dragging on for ages and it has been undermined by Egypt time and again. There was a memorandum of understanding signed by the late Monoah Peter Gatkuoth (South Sudan’s immediate former minister of water resources and irrigation) that was almost a sellout of our rights in South Sudan. And then through the good efforts of the speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA), Jemma Nunu Kumba. She managed to pass the Cooperative Framework Agreement and make sure South Sudan was the sixth country to sign and assent to that agreement. So, now it has become an African Union issue, to the displeasure of the Egyptians, but finally, South Sudan decided to sign with fellow African countries rather than the two countries down the Nile, Sudan and Egypt. It was a great achievement. The 1959 agreement on the Nile waters gave the entire discharge of the Nile waters, all the Nile waters, to Egypt and Sudan, and the source countries did not have a single drop. That was an injustice and the injustice has been corrected.
Q: Do you now think all the Nile Basin countries will have an equal share of the waters?
A: We have to wait and see the difference between what is on paper and what is going to happen in real life. The first step in any discipline is to establish the roles, rules, and regulations, this is what the cooperative agreement has done. If in its current form, it still has two versions of Article 14 (b), there is a version there, and if it is still there, and if we follow the Egyptian version of 14 (b), there will be no water for anyone. If we follow what the source countries want, then there will be water for everyone. However, Egypt is very weary of that and as you know, they are now forming a coalition between Eritrea, Somalia, and Egypt in the Horn of Africa to stand in the face of Ethiopia. So, it is still working progress, while it is a step forward, I do not think that it is time for joy or time for equitable sharing. The Egyptians are still very upset with South Sudan and there may be consequences because as you know we have tens of thousands of our children studying in Egypt, so, they have got some leverage.
I was told by one of the vice presidents in South Sudan that the Ministries of Agriculture and Water in Egypt have offices in all the ten states in South Sudan and I have got the pictures of these offices.
Q: Why would an Egyptian ministry have offices in all the states of South Sudan?
A: Well, if I were you, I would direct that question to the Government of South Sudan; why do they allow the ministry of a foreign country to establish offices in all the ten states of South Sudan? The signposts even show that these are offices of the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Water in South Sudan. There is a difference between water policies and water politics. Water politics is what we are talking about; when countries sign treaties and bilateral agreements. A water policy is the cooperation, collaboration, and scientific approach to sharing the water which is not happening in South Sudan.
As you might have heard, only last week, there was a new agreement signed, this time with an Asian company that was never in South Sudan, to do feasibility studies and so on while we did that during the public consultations and there is a 168-page report that we gave to President Salva Kiir on 27 July 2022 and we told him exactly what needs to happen if we need South Sudan to protect all its rights. I have got the letter signed by the minister of the council of ministers approving the report and recommendations and nothing happened. So, there is recycling, they all want to start from the beginning and they forget what was done before and what needed to be done.
If you take the cry now that the levels of the waters of the White Nile are rising, the gauges are there in South Sudan and all of them are managed by the Egyptians, and yet this is our water and our land.
Q: What are the implications of the Cooperative Framework Agreement?
A: The implication is that water is a national resource. Any country, any government that respects itself and the rights of its citizens will not give any element of its national security to a foreign entity. It does not happen unless there is corruption, lack of knowledge, and crime. Water is a resource and if somebody tampers with it, then Western Equatoria is not going to get the rains it is getting now.
When the Egyptians were dredging, the president of a neighboring country called our government, president (Kiir), and told them to be careful because if the evaporation from the Sudd is tampered with, Western Equatoria and Northern Uganda are not going to get the rains then they are getting now because the ecosystems are interconnected.
Q: The last time we interviewed you, there was a controversy over what the Egyptians were doing in the Naam Rivers and Unity State. Were they dredging the river or clearing it of bushes and other vegetation?
A: It was a secret. This is my field of expertise and the equipment that was brought in is not the kind that you need for surface cleaning of weeds. This is equipment that is meant for dredging and not only for clearing. What happened, how deep did they go? There was no supervision on site and the role of our water ministry was all kept as a secret. I even do not have information about where the equipment is now because it was supposed to be turned over to the Water Resources Ministry of South Sudan. Has that happened? You need to follow up on the answers to these questions as well.
Q: From your expert opinion, do you think the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has an environmental impact on the region? Do you think the dam will lead to conflict in the region in the future?
A: The conflict with Egypt has already started with the signing of the Cooperative Framework Agreement by President Salva Kiir. This was a very big blow and I think the start of a conflict. There is a new dimension that is brewing Horn of Africa and that is the new alliance between Egypt, Eritrea, and Somalia. Eritrea does not even contribute 1 percent to the Nile waters and their contribution is only seasonal streams. Somalia is a neighboring country and they have nothing to do with the Nile waters but Egypt is now taking a kind of military approach rather than the politics and policy approach on the issue. They want to have some kind of leverage on Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa and that is not difficult to have because Ethiopia itself is in trouble and there is war, especially in the Amhara region.
So, there is a bit of a mess, we are a little bit weak in the government system and South Sudan is not solid. No country in the world has got five vice presidents with his forces and his people in his region. That had never happened, so, we have a bigger problem than what meets the eye. We need to go to the root causes of governance and due diligence in what we do. We are signing memorandums of understanding, and agreements, and paying consultants, and yet nothing is happening on the ground. The economy has failed and salaries have not been paid for 10 months, so, we need to look at the cold reasons for the situation we are in now rather than the superficial ones and shouting that the khwajas (whites) are not good and that we are being targeted. Nobody wants to target South Sudan but also there is a feeling among the government that because they oversaw the liberation, it is as if they have a right over the entire South Sudan. You liberate your country because this is your national duty, not turning around and assuming that because you liberated the country, we owe you and that you own the resources. So, we need to be brave, daring, honest, and nationalistic about the root causes of the problems in South Sudan, including the water problem.
Q: What is your opinion about Juba City not having an adequate water distribution system yet the Nile passes through it?
A: This is a shameful situation. I must point to the days when I was hired by the World Bank to advise the water ministry for one year and then I went to Pibor and stayed there for another year. The Japanese did their job and built the basic structure for water in Juba and all that was left was to manage it well. Instead of the government doing the distribution of water in Juba in a modern way, they are using tankers. It is a shame that the capital of an independent state is using tankers to distribute water at the cost of the citizens. So, I think we need to go to the drawing board and remove this shame that the capital city of a country that is producing 160,000 barrels of crude oil a day when it was flowing, does not have water in the taps.
Q: Who do you blame for this failure?
A: The counties have got no money. When you are talking about development, you cannot do it without funds and the international donors are sick and tired, also, they do not come and work down at the level of city management. So, there is a major fault line and the government needs to remove this shame and allocate the funds. Stop travelling!
I remember the President of Tanzania [John Pombe Magufuli] who issued a presidential order banning himself from traveling abroad so that he does not waste money. He started with himself and then issued another decree that no employee should leave the country until further notice. Look at the way Government of South Sudan officials are traveling while salaries have not been paid. Look at the entourage that goes with them, look at the airplanes that are hired, look at that cost. The cost of one or two of those trips abroad probably would have paid for the connections for parts of Juba to have water. So, it is a matter of poor policies and the priorities are not the welfare of the people.
Q: What about the issue of electrification in Juba and South Sudan as a whole?
A: Power generation uses hydrocarbons and it is very expensive now. When you look at the amount of water that we have, the number of rivers, if Sobat River is dammed in the highlands of Ethiopia, because you cannot build a dam where there is cotton soil, you have to have rocks otherwise the dam will not hold. One of the major tributaries of the Sobat comes from Ethiopia and if we build a dam there, we can have between 260 to 270 megawatts of electricity produced to be shared with Ethiopia and Sudan. So, that kind of cooperation and collaboration is essential especially when we are poor and we are mismanaging the little money that is there. Fulla in Eastern Equatoria along the Nile has rapids and rocks. I have been there several times, and we can have a dam there. However, the dam needs to start with a pre-feasibility study which was done by the Germans and I have a copy of it. So, some groundwork for Fulla was done but we need to walk from the talk to the walk. We need to start where we can have control. If you look at memorandums of understanding and agreements that have been signed with Russia, Ukraine, China, etc. there is nothing on the ground. People just put on their suits and neckties and go and sign and then there is no implementation on the ground.
So, yes, there is potential for hydroelectric power at least to cover the entire eastern flank of the Nile which is part of Upper Nile, Jonglei, and then the Equatorias. That is possible.