African states near major water deal
After three years of closed-door talks, nine nations are edging toward a deal to jointly oversee the waters of the Nile.
An expected meeting of water ministers next month may produce a preliminary accord, officials say.
Such a pact would change the colonial era policy that reserved the world's longest river for irrigation in Egypt and Sudan, effectively denying its waters to Uganda and other upriver countries.
The dispute today, when almost all Egypt's water comes from the river, is rooted in a 1929 treaty that - with a 1959 side deal - guarantees 89% of the river flow for Egypt and Sudan.
It forbids people upriver to build, without Egyptian approval, irrigation or other projects that might significantly reduce water volume. Egypt maintains river inspectors in Uganda even today.
That original treaty was negotiated between Egypt and Britain, colonial ruler of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, now independent nations at the headwaters of the river's White Nile branch.
There are also pressing environmental reasons for the deal, given that drought and heat have lowered the level of nearby Lake Victoria, the vast lake connected to the Nile.
