The question to ponder: What will happen to the Nile agreements after the Sudan referendum come January 2011?

In early January 2011, unless if otherwise, the world will be looking at one part of the Nile Basin with close scrutiny and interest. It is Sudan, a country which is going for a referendum to decide on whether the southern part of country has to break away to form the world’s newest democracy. The other parts of the Nile Basin where voting has taken place or is yet to take place are Egypt (2010 parliamentary elections), Uganda (2011 Presiential, parliamentary and local government elections). The  Basin dwellers in those countries have been cast into an important ‘decision-making’ mode.

The Sudan referendum will be very important for the people of the Nile Basin and we at NBD can right now pray that the stakeholders in that referendum come up with a win-win situation that will bring greater peace and stability to the region.

In case the people vote to maintain the country in its current entirety, we should pray that the result is respected by all parties.

On the other hand, in case the voters choose to break off Southern Sudan from Sudan, on that too, we should pray that the result is respected by all parties. However, it will mean that the world will see a brand new nation born.

While this part of the Nile Basin has important implications to Nile Cooperation and Development, it has for some time also had some issues which some NBD members are speculating that may bring big changes to current status-quo of existing legal frameworks of the River Nile Development and cooperation.

As 2010 ends, Nile Basin residents should ponder on one important question, what will happen to the old Nile Basin treaties or Agreements? Your guess could be as wild as or similar to mine. Should there be no cancellations, let’s all pray for a peaceful referendum in Sudan, that will strengthen cooperation and development in the Nile Basin Region.
While people of the region should expect many changes in many aspects and socio-political dynamics of the Nile Basin if Southern Sudan breaks away, we at NBD will most likely engage in setting up a new Nile Discourse Forum for a ‘new member of the family.

Geographers describe Southern Sudan as “a large basin gently sloping northward (Roth 2003),” through which flow the Bahr el Jebel River, the (White Nile), the Bahr el Ghazal (Nam) River and its tributaries, and the Sobat, all merging into a vast barrier swamp creating a flood plain and a basin into which the rivers of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia drain off from an ironstone plateau that belts the regions of Bahr El Ghazal and Upper Nile.

That terrain can be divided into the following land classes:
- Highlands—higher than the surrounding plains by only a few centimeters; these are the sites for “permanent settlements.vegetation consists of open thorn woodland and/or open mixed woodland with grass.

- Intermediate Lands—lie slightly below the highlands, commonly subject to flooding from heavy rainfall in the Ethiopian and East/Central African highlands; here vegetation is open grassland with acacia woodland and other trees.

- Toicâ-land seasonally inundated or saturated by the main rivers and inland water-courses, retaining enough moisture in the dry season to support cattle grazing.

- Suddâpermanent swampland below the level of the toic; covers a substantial part of the floodplain in which the Dinka peoples reside; it provides good fishing; historically it has been a physical barrier to outsiders’ penetration and it’s ecology is unique; until recently, wild animals and birds flourished, hunted rarely by the agro-pastoralists.