Recently, the 6th Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) Development Forum was held in Addis Ababa for the second time. This high-level regional event forum is one of the largest information sharing and mutual understandings platforms in the water sector in the region. NBI is an inter-governmental partnership established on February 22, 1999 by Ministers in charge of water affairs in the Nile Basin countries. It has ten member states: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The forum attracted different water sector professionals, sector practitioners and among other stakeholders from ten member states in the region. And the forum provides all-inclusive regional platform for multi stakeholder dialogue, for sharing information, joint planning, management and development of the shared water and related resources in the Nile Basin.
It also helps strengthening the member states’ institutional and technical capacities and generates credible and impartial scientific based shared knowledge basis to support decision making and action at local levels. More importantly, it assists the member states to identify and prepare bankable investment projects that contribute to energy, water and food security in the Nile Basin countries.
On the occasion, Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy Eng. Sileshi Bekele (PhD) said that NBI is an all-inclusive basin-wide institution that helps to provide a forum for consultation and coordination among the basin states for the sustainable management and development of the shared Nile basin water and related resources for win-win benefits.
The NBI Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office (ENTRO) based in Addis Ababa is also undertaking enormous activities regarding the Nile water effective development in the region. The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) Forum helps building common understanding on the status of the water and natural resources base of the Nile Basin.
Having such forum brings a tangible economic cooperation in the water sector through a science-based policy dialogue that provides an opportunity for sharing latest information, knowledge and best practices as well as building partnerships among professionals, in trans-boundary water resources management and development.
The theme of the forum was “Rethinking Regional Investments in the Nile Basin”. This theme clearly shows the efforts to conduct feasible water sector investments in the region. Energy, food and water security as well as environmental sustainability and climate change adaptation are the key areas of focus of the forum. The focus areas are practical and currently member countries are moving jointly towards a new approach to regional planning and investment activities. In this case, the initiative is doing its best to achieve and promote the socio-economic benefits for the countries with membership in the initiative and their respective people.
“The Nile Basin is richly endowed with wetlands and other aquatic ecosystem, forests, grasslands, wildlife, arable land and other natural resources. However, across the basin, general destruction of the environment, ecosystems and watersheds, and pollution of surface and ground waters is occurring at an increasing rate in the region. This is threatening the sustainability of the ecosystem, and of the many goods and services derived from the natural resource base that the region communities are dependent on for sustenance and economic development,” he stated.
Currently, members of the initiative are collaborating to improve the management of trans-boundary Rivers and other water bodies. Within the basin, there are many cases of Nile riparian countries, individually or in groups, taking measures to protect the natural resource base.
These include individual countries implementing measures to reduce soil loss, improve water retention, reduce river and reservoir sedimentation and improve agricultural land productivity. They also include countries collaborating under regional programmes supported by Nile Basin Initiative and other organizations to value and improve the management of trans-boundary wetlands, and control the pollution of surface and groundwater. These measures, whether implemented by the countries exclusively or in a collective manner, confer trans-boundary benefits to all sharing a common water system, he underlined.
Minister Sileshi further said that the forum creates an opportunity to build partnership, examine shared complex challenges and exchange perspectives on the solutions for addressing these challenges. For his part, NBI Executive Director Prof. Seifeldin Hamad said that the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) promotes sustainable management and development of water and other energy sources in the region. The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) aims to ensure that Nile Basin countries work together to unlock the huge potential in order to bring a vast range of benefits to Nile Basin citizens.
Experts in the area also recommended that scaling up joint cooperation of watershed and river basin management in the Nile Basin is crucial, whether under the NBI, the would-be Nile Basin Commission or other forms of cooperation. It is unquestionable that joint action can contribute to poverty reduction and environmental restoration and development, as past projects have already exemplified this. Nevertheless, financial and technical support to countries to increase capacity building needs to be continued, in order to move to a higher level of impact from that already achieved under the NBI.
BY TEWODROS KASSA
The Ethiopian herald May 15/2021
