Signatory Letter of Intent to Return to Work Made Easy

Signatory letter of intent to return to work

[Music] the Nile the world's longest river a 7,000 kilometer lifeline for almost 400 million people flowing north the Nile run through ten countries from the Highlands in the heart of Africa to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea a source of sustenance but also one attention even potential conflict these tensions between countries along the River Nile have their roots in the 19th century colonial decisions of the past are a point of bitter dispute today and new political realities on the ground are increasing the sense of uncertainty over who owns the River Nile [Music] in September 2005 a team of explorers set off on a unique journey of the Nile River we're floating in the Mediterranean Sea at the mouth of the Nile we're about to begin the longest river journey in the world led by New Zealand adventurer cam McClay the team aimed at being the first expedition to travel up the Nile to its furthest source the first stage of the trek through Egypt and northern Sudan proved a breeze but then the explorers encountered the suit the world's largest swamp and in sevens a day and it goes into this mess of swampy area it's 1,000 kilometers long and 300 kilometers wide there's no hose it's no trees it's just bird life and water it's absolutely incredible the suit means obstacle in Arabic and it has proved just that a labyrinth of waterways that has hindered past expeditions up the Nile mcLeese team managed to navigate their way out of the swamp after 90 days of travel overcoming tremendous obstacles they eventually arrived in Rwanda at a tiny spring which they determined to be the southernmost source of the Nile today McClay is settled in Uganda where he runs a whitewater rafting business in the city of ginger here on the Nile you like Jenkins good just a few kilometers away from oklet's business stands this obelisk a monument to a past Nile adventurer John Hanning Speke speak was a British explorer who arrived here almost a hundred and fifty years earlier in 1862 he came in search of the answer to an age-old question where is the source of the Nile the Royal Geographical Society in London was established in 1830 it houses the Maps Navigation tools and personal belongings of famous explorers from the 19th century men who were in the grip of a romantic obsession to discover the source of the Nile [Music] for Europeans the exploration of the mile is probably the biggest goal to drives their enterprise in the 19th century because it's seen as is the largest the most important river and also because there is this long heritage or history associated with it rather than trying to cross the sub area in southern sedan explorers in the mid-1800s chose another passage via the island of Zanzibar during the 19th century Zanzibar was an Arab kingdom controlling the trade route from India into Africa's interior these Arab traders facilitate European exploration it's the Arabs the Arab traders for example who begin first to report that there are great lakes or a great lake in the interior of East Africa [Music] based on this information the Royal Geographical Society sponsored expeditions into the heart of Africa in 1857 using Zanzibar as a starting point John Hanning Speke crossed to East Africa and ventured into the hinterland where he found a huge lake he believed to be the source of the Nile three years later on a new expedition he traveled around this lake today known as Lake Victoria to discover the Nile flowing out from its northern side a roll call of famous explorers ventured into the continents interior to build on speaks discovery men such as Samuel Baker David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley helped complete the picture about the true source of the Nile back home they were lauded as heroes with monuments built to honor them but others saw them differently it was mistakenly called discovering in most books in the past you say speak discover denier as if he was a fast human being see denier when actually he was the first European to see the source of the knife but not to discover it because he was even shown the source of the narrow behind the Africans here the Royal Geographical Society help push the boundaries of exploration and empires but this age of expiration is seen by many as a precursor of colonization [Music] Marlette unless most of these people were explorers but intelligence services in their own countries made use of their experiences Fela met Russell unreality they were not only British but also Belgians and French Benji they observe the people and the situation in these areas did I show - and they then pass this information on for colonization and as America's armed with greater information the age of exploration began the Scramble for Africa the continent was up for grabs to divide the spoils European nations convened at the Berlin conference in 1884 where they sliced up the African continent into Spears of influence Britain had formerly occupied Egypt two years earlier in 1882 to control the Suez Canal the strategic route to India the jewel in the crown of the British Empire in Berlin it was decided the Nile Basin region would fall under British rule when the British to control it 1982 they very soon realized that they had become rulers of a society never totally dependent upon the Nile so they understood from the very beginning that the economic development political stability depend upon my control [Music] to assert control upstream the British established what it called the East Africa Protectorate in 1895 comprising what is today Kenya and Uganda their next step was Sudan a territory ruled by Egypt since 1820 with their domination in Egypt the British persuaded the Egyptians to sign an agreement in January 1899 allowing for joint rule of a sedan in reality joint rule was a fig leaf for British command here in the presidential palace in Khartoum to this day a museum houses portraits of former governors of Sudan the paintings are testament to a time of British Dominion Heena I wouldn't in fact the British master the art of ruling Sudan they completely sidelined the Egyptians or is it your moody Engel easy the governor-general was British the commander of the army was British and so were all the high-ranking officials in the administration they feel easy controlling the Great Lakes region source of the White Nile the British next turn their attention to ensuring hegemony over the Blue Nile the rivers are the source originating in the Ethiopian highlands in May 1902 the British signed an agreement with Emperor Menelik ii of ethiopia in which he promised not to build any dam that might affect the flow of the blue nile to egypt feeling they had secured the full length of the nile britain's decision-makers in london began to put in place the next phase of their master plan economic gain from quite early on the british also decided to transform mediate into cotton farm for the textile industry is a Lancashire inning British reliance on Egyptian cotton began to increase [Music] to boost the harvest the British set out to revolutionize Egypt's irrigation system a system dating back thousands of years [Music] they gave priority to the vote control you see there's an eye control issue they're both engineers both the planners from India from the colonial service in India to Egypt experienced guys gave them a lot of funds lot of political freedom so that they really could take the Nile in hand the British came up with the idea for a dam in southern Egypt to hold back the Nile flood and use its waters for irrigation construction on the Aswan low dam began in 1899 it was officially opened three years later at the time it was the largest stone dam of its kind ever built Britain wanted to ensure the full flow of the Nile reached Egypt to maximize cotton production no one else upstream was allowed to siphon off any of the river yeah no my forehead so my llama so strict orders were laid down regarding the use of the Nile water because the British were concerned about Egypt ma you're a little low for example they banned Sudanese farmers from using water pumps unless they obtained permission from the Egyptian irrigation Authority Britain discriminated in favor of Egypt's claim over the Nile the British expected the Egyptians to be thankful but they were to have a rude awakening in 1919 following the end of the First World War the Egyptians revolted against British occupation and demanded complete independence they were led by a fiery nationalist called saad zaghloul with such sentiment on the rise the british looked for a way to cower the Egyptians into submission the river nile Egypt's lifeline was an effective political weapon and the British had in mind a perfect place to use this weapon the Gojira region in Sudan between the Blue Nile and the White Nile was an area with the potential to become the largest cotton growing region in the world they had two plants two motives or two main strategic ideas behind the gojira's game or one to increase the cotton production in Sudan for the benefit of the pitchers taste our industry secondly that hey this cue he did it's not really in control total now he's running through Saddam and his who has a power ends down the page has the power in Saddam British attempts to intimidate the Egyptians only further inflamed nationalist sentiment a crisis point was reached when in November 1924 surly stack commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army and governor of Sudan was assassinated while driving through the streets of Cairo the assassins were arrested and sentenced to death but the murder of the British official was a turning point London now found its reason to implement the Gazzara scheme thought they did was that okay you killed the governor-general then we will take more vote from the Nile as a punishment so this was the first time in practice and extreme power punished the dance compared with the voter weapon britain's trump card was the sin our dam completed in 1925 built on the blue nile in sedan it would help the irrigation of the Gojira area but it also delivered an ominous signal to the Egyptians for the first time in their history a dam built outside of Egypt would affect the flow of the Nile into their country nationalists however continued to mobilize popular support against the British occupation cooler heads in London began to realize that relations with Egypt were deteriorating fast something which could threaten British control over the Suez Canal as before the River Nile became a useful political tool this time for compromise rather than coercion in May 1929 notes were exchanged between the British High Commissioner in Egypt George Lloyd and the Egyptian Prime Minister Mohammed Mahmoud Pasha this diplomacy led to a landmark agreement in which Britain awarded Egypt exclusive control over the full course of the nile waters from egypt point of view the 1929 agreement was of course a victory because here the british said that well the nile is an egyptian little bit more or less and the an Egypt has a veto right to stop / - top stream if they don't want it by signing the 1929 agreement the British sought to co-opt the Egyptians no such consideration was given to the indigenous peoples upstream who were not consulted even though the river originated in their lands by the early 1930s Britain was becoming increasingly concerned with a growing menace closer to home [Music] at the end of World War two in 1945 Britain was no longer the mighty empire that could claim control over large parts of the world such as the Nile Basin after the Second World War Britain came out of the war eject bridge economy came out very much devastated and the USA now became of the world power the United States stepped forward to assert itself more boldly on the world stage in places formerly controlled by the old empires in 1953 US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles became the first high-ranking American official to visit Cairo Dulles offered financial support for the construction of a massive new Dam on the Nile in southern Egypt but three years later the offer was withdrawn the Americans had become suspicious of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul NASA's non-alignment policy at the same time the withdrawal of the offer provided an opportunity to undermine British influence John Foster Dulles and the American government they understood quite clearly that one way of crushing the influence of the British imperialists in this area both to make them powerless when you consider the now question became clear that everybody that it was the Americans we decided and the [ __ ] had to just follow up there said despite the withdrawal of financial support for the construction of the Aswan High Dam NASA chose to push ahead in July 1956 he nationalized the Suez Canal Company to provide funding for the project the takeover stunned British and French shareholders in the suez company the British still ruling parts of East Africa at a secret plan of retaliation the plan would involve using the Owen Falls dam in Uganda to cut off the flow with the Nile upstream in an attempt to force Nasser to give up the Suez Canal the scheme was never adopted since the ensuing drought would take too long to have its effect on Egypt Britain wanted more immediate action so they reverted to a more obvious method boots on the ground in 1956 Britain and France with Israeli collusion invaded Egypt in a bid to seize back the canal the Americans publicly distance themselves from the aggression United States was not consulted in any way about any phase of these actions nor were we informed of them in advance it is our hope and intent this matter will be brought before the United Nations General Assembly there with no veto operating the opinion of the world can be brought to bear in our quest for a just end to this tormenting problem the United Nations declared a ceasefire Suez Crisis ended with a humiliating withdrawal of the invasion forces from Egypt it was to prove a seminal moment in modern history the Sun was setting on the British Empire colonialism was on the decline in Africa nations began to gain their independence among them Nile upstream countries the winds of change were blowing creating new states and new demands for a share of the waters of the Nile you [Music] cartoon capital of Sudan the meeting point of the White Nile from the Great Lakes region and the Blue Nile from the Ethiopian highlands handy is a resident of tuti island where the two miles converge he explains to his son the difference in the color of the waters the White Nile on the left and the Blue Nile on the right and how they join here to form one River flowing northwards to Egypt are you mad how amazingly the most beautiful thing distinguishing us from the rest of the work is the Nile it became a de volta there is no other River like it it's a great river heavenly and the life around it is unique not very neat in this small truck each day Hamdi delivers vegetables across the river to the market of Omdurman another Irishman I dip of the Nile I take vegetables that grow here to the market how would I live otherwise I never moved away even when we die we'll be buried by the life Sudan's road to independence started in the middle of the 20th century in 1953 Britain and Egypt joint rulers over Sudan for more than 50 years signed an agreement giving the Sudanese people the right to self-determination two years later in 1955 the Sudanese Parliament unanimously adopted a declaration of independence rather than unifying with Egypt into a single country On January the 1st 1956 the Sudanese flag was raised for the first time in Khartoum the largest country in Africa was born a country forming 60% of the entire Nile Basin area Sudan had enormous agricultural potential but there was a drawback the 1929 anglo-egyptian agreement allotted only four billion cubic meters of nile waters to the Sudanese territory compared to Egypt's 48 billion cubic meters the newly independent Sudanese were not happy inheriting this colonial legacy their collective Archaea cannot this agreement reinforced Egyptian dominance over the Nile a Anil my and gave Sudan just a token amount he as Sudan what was that if the calling of each half most Sudanese believe that the Nile agreements were unjustly set and the distribution of the water should have been based on the size of the country - me sir yep Sudan share should have been much more than what was agreed upon because it's far larger heavy rain event the 1929 agreement had also given Egypt the right to monitor the Nile flow beyond Egyptian territory where they are as for Alan Wonder soil I remember when I was a young engineer I moved to death in our dam my roommate was an Egyptian engineer who's Muslim and his sole job was to check the amount of water Sudan took from the Nile and to ensure that Sudan didn't take water during the drought season way or ayah Sahara Viviani keen to assert its newly won sovereignty the sudanese government declared it was no longer bound by the 1929 agreement by 1958 relations between Sudan and Egypt had deteriorated sedan's foreign minister traveled to Cairo for urgent meetings the two peoples had often described themselves as brothers of the Nile Valley but now there was a growing rift but dramatic events in Khartoum brought a sudden end to tensions in November 1958 the Sudanese army staged a coup d'etat overthrowing the government General Ibrahim Abood took the reins of power looking back on events some see the hand of n egyptian president jamal abu nasr behind the coup allah humma going up Jamal Abdel Nasser like in military crews and Lieutenant General Abood was close to the Egyptian regime in southern Missouri a year after the coup a Sudanese delegation arrived in Cairo to sign a new Nile agreement the 1959 full utilization of Nile waters agreement allocated a new share of the river ahead of the completion of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt once constructed the dam was due to save over 30 billion cubic meters of floodwater annually Egypt share of the Nile increased by several billion cubic meters sedans limited share more than quadrupled the 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan consolidated a renewed alliance muscle as food an Egypt and Sudan formed a joint committee here responsible for monitoring the river in the token of dr. death and increasing its water flow was yada-yada one way to increase the Nile waters was to resurrect a plan dating back to British colonial times over 20 billion cubic meters of the Nile waters carried downstream from the Great Lakes region are lost by evaporation in the huge swamp area of southern Sudan known as the suit the plan was to dig a canal diverting the Nile to bypass this area reducing the water loss it was called the jungle a canal there was one problem [Music] Sedan was far from stable the nation had been born with a dangerous fault line between a predominantly Arab and Muslim north and a mainly Christian and animist south [Music] chief Damien is a village leader on the outskirts of Juba the capital of southern Sudan he remembers the mood of secession in the south during the early 1950s who wondered opponent because we were we use always by Arabs as second men in the Indian days in the government we were cheated who are cheated by the Arabs not eNOS Arabs you were cheating readily I'm not Anna I'm as soon as an African by Regan America in August 1955 the first Sudanese civil war erupted between north and south fighting raged for 17 years eventually the Peace Accord was signed in 1972 in Addis Ababa the end of fighting meant that plans for the jungle a canal in southern Sudan could now be brought back off-the-shelf Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and his Sudanese counterpart Jafar L memory did exactly this and in 1978 work started on the 360 kilometer canal but the southern Sudanese viewed the project with suspicion the main tribes of the region such as the new air and Dinka made a living by grazing their cattle across the suit the jungle a canal threatened to dry up significant parts of this wetland from the start it proved harmful for the tribes and their livestock I know that when the jungle canal was being open I was still a young man and we saw stuck any stock of cattle coming from the East going to the Nile to drink water and they just went in and they perished because of the big bank that was opened because of those machines a campaign against the jungle a canal project gained momentum reaching far and wide yogi who will be humble a chihuahua the jungly canal was met with a hostile campaign by the India vesnina d'Ivoire I was minister of irrigation and I received letters from Japan from environmentalists asking me why we would want to drive the wetlands in southern Sudan and create a desert italic sorry a letter from someone in Japan who wasn't even living here and had no rights to this water how la Hamlisch agua it was part of the campaign of negativity aimed at creating instability in our area Yani allah mr. Drossel interrupted by the early 1980s the project almost two-thirds complete had become the focus for suspicion and wild rumors well there was politics and you know politicians can create they can create stories to frighten people one of them was that probably there were a lot of the gist is coming to settle occur on the canal that was not true but of course in the absence of proper information anything could be bleed relations between the North and the South began to deteriorate once again in 1983 a group of southern Sudanese soldiers mutiny refusing to obey orders from their northern commanders an officer by the name of John Garang joined the mutineers he led them into the bush to start a guerrilla movement which came to be known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army or SPLA the Sudan's people Liberation Army was not against the John McCain are perfect as such John Garang the leader Espaillat had written his PhD thesis by the way on the jaw neck now his problem was not the person itself but his complaint was the southern Sudan also needs water and you will not just be satisfied a little bit [Music] the project provided one of the very first targets for the SPLA at the beginning of Sedan second civil war between the North and the South the canals giant excavator lays in a spot where it dug its last hole a rusting destroyed wreck [Music] the fighting lasted for 22 years two million people died and four million became refugees after a series of talks a peace agreement ending the civil war was signed in January 2005 in naivasha Kenya the Accord stipulated a referendum to be held throughout southern Sudan on independence by January 2011 the referendum resulted in southern secession a new country was born and a new question arose with the new country abide by previous water agreements allocating a share of the Nile flow even before the announcement of the referendum result the opinion from the South was clear we must revise those agreements because suicide and Sudan become a different state then this must be revised because I'd incidentally no longer included in that agreement a new Nile Basin country in Africa rejecting the validity of old agreements a new nation looking to secure its own share of the rivers waters something similar has happened before [Music] in the 1960s with European colonial powers declining a number of African nations gained their independence among them upstream states on the River Nile soon after they announced they would not abide by the 1929 anglo-egyptian Nile agreement which had given Egypt exclusive control of the river I took 14 D of 1929 agreement he states very clearly that no states shall be able to utilize the Nile River waters or the rivers reading the Niles all the lakes which fits the River Nile without the approval of the Egyptians of the Egyptian government that alone gives veto to Egypt over other riparian States the two agreements from the previous century from 1929 and 1959 lie at the heart of today's struggle over the Nile Egypt and Sudan on one side see the agreements as historical legacies to be maintained kanako-sama battle or Ocella we must uphold agreements in treaties but that was that this is a logic that applies to national borders too and he'll do them now you can just change the borders of African countries because the demarcation has been ratified in pre independence treaties the man I'd let you and so you can just demand new stipulations in the Lyle agreements especially since this is a crucial case relating to our livelihood the Nile waters are such a case Egypt doesn't have any other water source though from an area on the other side upstream countries see the past agreements as colonial relics and demand their own rights to a share of the Nile waters we are all aware that the agreement on the usage of the nail water was signed way back during the colonial time and since then a lot of things have happened and therefore there was need to review the agreement itself and how the countries through which the nail goes can benefit critically in an effort to resolve the growing dispute in 1999 the ministers of Water Resources from all the Nile Basin countries met here in Dar es Salaam Tanzania the so-called Nile Basin initiative was launched aimed at promoting joint projects and reaching a new agreement over the sharing of the Nile but the mood of camaraderie at the initial meetings soon changed I would then record in the Kenneth a la I'd like it to be known that the relationship between us and them wasn't that amicable basella they believed we were taking all of the water and that they were getting nothing Makai lemak will never walk let alone when we went for meetings in those countries they would say you're taking our water cover my update mm okay I don't want to say it was a hostile atmosphere but it certainly wasn't friendly [Music] the upstream countries accused Egypt of digging in its heels by refusing to consider relinquish in the agreements from the previous century negotiations continued over ten years attitudes hardened positions became ever more entrenched the Egyptians saw their share of the river flow as both negligible and non-negotiable aghhhhhh miley yada Mia the amount of rainfall in the entire Nile Basin area is 1.6 trillion cubic meters over hard sub Denali but what arrives downstream is 84 billion cubic meters only which means less than 5% there's a [ __ ] so where does the difference go it's wasted in evaporation in swamps in force and it is not used in upstream countries you know hazard Camille but even therefore we should put aside this small quantity which is less than 5 percent leave it aside and focus on building joint projects between the Nile Basin countries this will save part of the lost water then we can divide it in a fair way between the 10 Basin countries Bennett Bennett will hold Elijah the upstream country's rejected Egyptian arguments Ethiopia was one of the countries which after years of being caught up an internal strife and tragedy was now pushing more forcefully for a greater share of the Nile Rena fall is not entitled to hear to be negotiated because this is a desert on the nature and it is a green water and green water is not negotiated in any international agreement that's why it Opia is demanding the night water as well all waters within it is territory it is natural resources and that Natural Resources the resource of every European people things reach the head in May 2010 at a meeting in Entebbe Uganda when for upstream nations signed a new agreement nullifying older ones and setting up policies for a more equitable share of the Nile to this date six countries are signatories Ethiopia Uganda Rwanda Tanzania Kenya and Burundi Egypt and Sudan were absent having refused to even attend the meeting there was a mood of celebration among those who signed the so-called mile cooperative framework agreement a wonderful regulate ourselves a country the riparian for having come this far I know some of us entered there but it requires even more concerted effort make sure that we are all on board the signatories believe Egypt and Sudan will have to come on board at some point and sign the new agreement all the time they walk out but they still come back because there is no any other source that they can be able to use and what we have been telling them the only simple way is cooperation which most erotic recommendations sure enough a few weeks later in June 2010 the Egyptians return to the negotiating table it was a bitter pill for them to swallow however they have yet to sign the Entebbe agreement for the Egyptians at least for the time being facts on the ground are more important than the signing of any accrued muster the whole Egypt and certain neutral parties believe that we don't need to sign any agreement at the present time but it worked it had that there is no need for a framework agreement for the foreseeable future Boonen Haga we believe what is important is what is happening on the ground especially the fact that there are no big dam projects at the present time that may affect Egyptian interests atmosphere but the status quo is unlikely to hold African upstream nations are increasingly demanding a larger share of the nile waters such demands are raising fears downstream fears stoked up by a history of suspicion and rivalry fears about countries not only on the Nile but even beyond the great river itself [Music] you