Hundreds of millions of people in the Nile basin area depend on the Nile’s water. Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi (the ten “Nile basin countries”) all depend on this vital resource, but a 1929 treaty with the UK endowed Egypt with veto powers over upstream water-related projects in neighboring countries. In 1997, the Nile Basin initiative was launched to negotiate an equitable water-sharing treaty between the nations, but to date Egypt and Sudan have refused to sign proposed agreements.