The Nile is one of the world’s long

The Nile is one of the world’s longest rivers, traversing 6,695 kilometers as it journeys from its farthest source at the headwaters of the Kagera Basin to its delta in Egypt. The drainage Basin of the Nile covers about 3.2 million square kilometers spread between 35 degrees of latitude, This area is about one tenth of the land area of Africa and is shared by 11 countries namely Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, The Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda.

Despite the long length of the river and its expansive basin area, the flow in the Nile is a small fraction of the flow in other large rivers of the world such as the Congo, Amazon, and Yangtze. This is particularly explained by the low runoff coefficient of the Nile (below 5%) and the fact that about two-fifths of the basin area contributes little or no runoff as it is comprised of arid and hyper arid dry lands.

The scientific understanding of the Nile has been limited due to insufficient basin-wide hydrologic, meteorological, climatic, socio-economic, ecosystem related data and information, not to speak of analytic tools and systems and institutional capabilities. There is also asymmetry among the riparian countries in terms of water infrastructure development, institutional and technical capacity (relatively well developed in the two most downstream countries and at incipient stage in the upstream countries). These challenges and threats are by their very nature trans-boundary and no single country is capable of addressing them or their consequences on its own.

Despite these seemingly formidable challenges, the River Nile holds tremendous opportunities for growth, being one of the least developed rivers in the world. The Nile Basin offers significant potentials for cooperative management and development of the common water resources that would confer direct and indirect win-win benefits to all riparian countries. The Basin has significant potential for clean energy (hydropower) development and power trade; for improving and expanding both irrigated and rain-fed agricultural production and increasing water use efficiency; for preservation and use for eco-tourism of designated biospheres which are significant to sustaining global biological diversity. The River Nile also provides a key resource for drinking water, fisheries production, navigation, recreation and ecosystem maintenance. There is also potential for broader economic-regional integration, promotion of regional peace and security; and most important for jointly ensuring the continued existence of the River Nile for posterity through prudent and judicious utilization.

The Nile Basin is endowed with a rich cultural history, world class environmental assets such as the Sudd in South Sudan, which is one of the world’s largest fresh water wetlands; the world’s second largest inland lake, Lake Victoria (shared by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) and associated unique endemic flora and fauna. The Basin hosts diverse eco-regions which feature immense diversity, including huge tributary rivers, waterfalls, large lakes, wetlands, floodplains, forests, savannahs, montane ecosystems as well as arid and hyper-arid lands (deserts).It also hosts some of the world’s largest congregations of large mammals and flocks of migratory birds from Eurasia and other regions of Africa. The Basin has also hosted some of the oldest civilizations of mankind.

At the same time the Basin is facing ever-growing challenges and pressures. Climate Change is expected to increase the likelihood of extreme events (prolonged droughts and floods) which will adversely affect the food, water and energy security of the riparian countries. These are compounded by high demographic growth rates (in seven of the 11 riparian countries, population will double in the coming 20 – 25 years) and by the demands of faster economic growth across the basin. Furthermore, the Nile is relatively a water scarce river compared to major rivers of the world (volume is only 5% of the Congo River at Inga, for example). The upper catchments of the Basin face huge soil loss due to land degradation; the wetlands in the midsection are increasingly threatened by commercial agriculture and land conversion, at the extreme end the Nile Delta by sea water intrusion and soil salinization. In all the regions of the basin there is on-going significant loss of biodiversity.