A presentation by the Nile Basin Initiative at WLE Nile Basin Focal Region Consultation, October 17-18, 2013

1. The Nile Basin
Opportunities, Challenges,
and
Research Priorities
CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE)
Nile Basin Regional Focal Program
NBI-IWMI Regional Focal Program Workshop

2. The Nile Basin
•Longest River, 6700km
•Basin Area: 3.2 million sq.km, 10%
of Africa
• Basin shared by 11 Basin
countries: Burundi, DR
Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ke
nya, Rwanda, South
Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda
• Population of over 400 million; >
200 mill. in the basin
•Rich natural and environmental
assets
•Rich historical heritage

3. Water Resources – Planning/Management issues …. The Scale factor
Agriculture Department
Livestock Department
Precipitation
Forest Department
Rural Water Supply Department
Fishing
Forest
Reservoir
Urban Water Supply Department
Hydropower
Irrigation Department
Runoff
Power
River Basin Boundary
Industry
Urban WSS
Department
Industry Department
Rural WSS
Rainfed Agr
Fisheries Department
Return Flow
Irrigation
Recreation
Groundwater Inflow
Environment Department
Community Use
Transport Department
Navigation
Tourism Department
Infiltration / Recharge
Wetlands / Environment
Livestock
Groundwater Department
Base Flow / Pumping
Groundwater
Surface Water Department
Ocean Development/CZM Department
Trans-boundary Water Institutions
…there is a need to integrate the activities of
multiple actors in a basin framework…
Irrigation
Groundwater Outflow
Ocean

4. The Nile Basin….
Lake Victoria Basin
Key features
• Largest freshwater lake in Africa; shared by 3
countries; Lake area: 68,000 km2
• Catchment area: 250,000 sq km;
• Lake offers major regulation of flow
• Major source of water for Urban
use, irrigation, fishery, navigation, waste
disposal,
Water management issues:
• Lake level decline,
• Pollution;
• Upstream high population density – land
degradation/soil erosion, siltation
Key Water Management Challenges:
• Regulating abstractions among different users
• Regulating effluent discharges; water quality
monitoring
• Water hyacinth
• Sustainable fishing
• Understanding the resource base – expanding
the knowledge frontier for better management

5. The Nile Basin….
the Sudd Wetlands
Key Features
Complex hydrology; regulates flow and serves
as water filter (WQ)
• Home to endemic fish, birds, mammal and
plant species.
• Regionally significant part of the Nile
Basin
Key Water Management Issues
• Post-conflict region  Poverty; infrastructure
gap
• Major interest to conserve water
• Increasing investments in land;
• Pollution threat - oil
Key Water Management Challenges
• How to support emergence and consolidation of
sustainable WR management
policies, strategies, institutions
• Filling the data and information gap
• Promoting sustainable development factoring in
the above

6. The Nile Basin….
the Blue Nile
Key Features
• A major tributary of the Nile; contributes about
60 per cent of annual flow
• Highly eroded watershed – soil loss through
erosion; impact on livelihood
• Has biggest share of hydropower potential
upstream; excellent sites for dams
• Opportunities for regional cooperation
Key Water Management Issues
• Erosion (u/s), sedimentation (d/s)
• Impacts of watershed management on
catchment scale;
• Blue and green water – under different
climate change/variability scenarios
• Flood mitigation; recession agriculture
Key Water Management Challenges
• How to develop and manage cascade water
infrastructure to deliver sustainable benefits
across countries and uses;

7. The Nile Basin….
the Nile Delta
Key Features
• Nile fully regulated (Aswan High Dam
• Very little rainfall; No significant locally
generated river flow
• Well developed water resources infrastructure
Key Water Management Issues
• Declining water quality,
• Sea level rise,
• Soil salinization,
• Potential impact of upstream developments
on water availability ?
• Impact of climate change on agricultural
water use
Key Water Management Challenges
• How to sustain the water use systems under
changing climatic, hydrologic, and socioeconomic boundary conditions

8. the Nile Basin Countries…
Facing rapidly changing economies and population
- Increased water demand
- Increased energy demand
- More effluent flows into water
bodies
 water quality concerns
- More encroachments into
floodplains
 Increased risk to floods
Source: World Bank; World Development Indicator database
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9. the threat of climate change….
Upstream economies:
- Agriculture is backbone of
economy
- hostage to climatic
variability?

10. and a massive infrastructure gap
700
600
North America
Australia
China
- 6150 m3/person
- 4729
- 2486
492
800
788
900
363
370
Burkina Faso
307
400
Namibia
500
139
142
Tanzania
11
100
47
114
200
Algeria
300
South Africa
Artificial storage – m3 per person
Morocco
Nigeria
Kenya
Ethiopia
0
Lesotho
storage / capita
Water Storage
the ability to
mitigate against
variability
through the
simple principle
of storing water
from times of
plenty for use in
times of scarcity.

11. and dependency on upstream riparians
Preemptive control
of water or
Collaboration?
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12. The Nile Basin….
Key Water Management Challenges
• Cumulative impacts of growing demand
against a more or less static or declining
water quantity; declining water quality;
• How to manage this incongruity in the
short, medium and long-term:
• Institutional : policy; regulation;
agreements; basin organizations
mandates; trust and confidence
• Technical: tools; data, information; man
power; networks;
• Infrastructural: management (us/ds);
regulation/coordination; standards;
monitoring

13. Opportunities for cooperation
• Flood risks management: data sharing; early warning
systems, preparedness and mitigation.
– Ethiopia – Sudan; Uganda – South Sudan; Ethiopia – South Sudan
• Hydropower development and power trade:
– Rusumo falls (Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania)
– Ethiopia – Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania
• Agricultural trade
• Joint management of water storage facilities:
– E.g. Lake Victoria (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda)
– Ethiopia – Sudan – Egypt
• Managing Risks (e.g. climate change, pollution, sedimentation)
• Managing scarce water resources:
– Supply development
– Demand side management
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14. Nile Basin Initiative (NBI)
Launched in 1999
Shared Vision:
Sustainable socio-economic development through equitable
utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water
resources.
Three Core Functions:
- Facilitation of Cooperation
- Water Resources Management
- Water Resources Development
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15. Facilitating Cooperation (basin-wide)
Lead Centre: NBI Secretariat
• Program Objective: To facilitate, support and nurture
cooperation amongst the Nile Basin countries so as to
promote timely and efficient joint actions for securing
benefit from the common Nile Basin water resources.
• Program Description:
 Providing and operating a unique platform for inter-country
dialogue and negotiation on issues of sustainable water
management and development.
 Facilitating regional liaison among water-related interests and
provision of strategic information.

16. Water Resource Management (basin-wide)
Lead Centre : NBI Secretariat
Program Objective: To assess, manage and safeguard the
water resource base that supports the peoples of the Nile
Basin through applying the principles of knowledge-based
IWRM to water development planning and assessment.
Focus areas:
• Development, maintenance and administration of analytic
systems and capacity
• Technical analysis on strategic water resources
management issues
• Knowledge management
• River basin monitoring
• Transboundary policy formulation and advisory support

17. Water Resource Development (sub-basin)
Lead Centre: SAP Centres (NELSAP-CU and ENTRO)
Program Objective: To identify, prepare and facilitate
investment in transboundary water development projects
and programs whilst avoiding negative impacts on the
health of the Nile Basin’s resources through applying the
principles of IWRM.
Program Description: Assisting its member countries to
achieve joint water development projects and
management programs through supporting the
identification of development opportunities, the
preparation of projects and facilitation of investment to
enable member countries to implement the projects.

18. Key achievements of NBI
• Brings all riparians together and provide the form for dialogue
• Through technical cooperation, generated wealth of
knowledge on the Nile Basin water resources system
• Improved mutual understanding among riparian states and
non-governmental stakeholders of the
fragility, sensitivity, hydro-politics, of the Nile
• Prepared joint projects and initiated implementation
• Mobilized major international support
• Contributed towards reducing information/knowledge
asymmetry among riparian countries
• Succeeded to bring the cooperation agenda high in all riparian
countries
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19. How the research community can help
Areas for Applied Research
- Exploring ways for enhancing efficiency in agricultural water use:
- Where are the hope spots for improvement
- What is possible – how much water can be ‘reclaimed’?
- How much would it ease stress on the water resources
- Demand side management and its potential for alleviating pressure
on the Nile water resources
- Ecological flows:
- Cause-effect relationship with water – use sectors
- Estimation of environmental flows
- Rainfed Agriculture
- What are the risks due to climate change? And what adaptation
mechanisms are available; blue water – green water;
- Transboundary Water Resources Managing water scarce river basin
– lessons from other basins
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20. How the research community can help
Areas for Applied Research
- Salinity:
- Combined water and salt balance development for the NileDelta
- Evaluation of scenarios for managing salinity (water application
technology and impacts on salinity, impacts of upstream water
resources development)
- Tradeoffs
- Benefits of cooperation and risks of non-cooperation
- Policy research: policy gaps, impacts of policy applications, ..
- Science - policy/decision making interface – what best practices are
available out there?
- Groundwater resources
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