Ambassador of Ethiopia to Pakistan Jemal Beker Abdula has said that his country fully adhered to the international rule of equitable and reasonable utilization of trans-boundary water. “As far as, the Nile River water is concerned, Ethiopia is determined to follow international rules, treaties and conventions, but we do not recognize any treaty to which Ethiopia is not the party,” the ambassador said while delivering a lecture on international water law, hydro-politics and hydro-diplomacy at a workshop titled “Winter School for International Law”.
The “Winter School for International Law” was hosted by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) in collaboration with the Research Society of International law.
At the outset of his lecture, the ambassador elucidated the terms of hydro-politics and hydro-diplomacy and shed light on this subject’s evolution in the last couple of decades. He also informed the audience about the existing international water laws and treaties, the United Nations Watercourse convention, and theories regarding the use of shared transboundary water resources. Around the world, he said three-quarters of UN Member States shared rivers or lake basins with their neighbors. “There are more than 270 shared river basins, which provide freshwater for almost 40% of the globe’s population, including the Nile, the Indus, the Ganges, the Euphrates-Tigris, and the Mekong.”
As regards the inter-state relations of the African continent in the context of shared water resources, he said the Nile River was the longest transboundary river in the world whose water was shared among 11 countries
