The Arab Water Council declared the adoption of a public delegation project. This is a new attempt, among the successive Egyptian attempts, to support the ties of cooperation between the Egyptian people and the peoples of the remaining upstream Nile countries, and to open the horizons for deepening mutual trust.

The delegation is supposed to set off from Egypt to the upstream Nile countries every three months. It will include representatives of political and popular forces, intellectuals, folk art groups, artists, singers, university students, doctors and engineers who will work on visiting these countries and making direct contact with people in the streets, far removed from diplomatic and governmental political endeavors.

The idea of the Nile delegation was part of the recommendations of the two-day workshop held by the Arab Water Council on Dec. 1-2. Al-Monitor attended this workshop, during which participants discussed ways of working with civil society organizations to develop an Egyptian action plan. This plan would work on solving the crisis of the current conflicts between the Nile countries over the distribution of the river’s water.

Mahmoud Abu Zeid, president of the Arab Water Council and former minister of water resources and irrigation, asserted at the end of the workshop that the council adopted the project of a public Egyptian delegation in the east Nile countries as a start. The delegation is supposed to travel to north and South Sudan and Ethiopia to communicate directly with the people and to effectively rebuild trust between societies. In the future, the activity of the delegation is supposed to expand to include the remaining upstream Nile countries.