The Nile River, the world's longest waterway, spans a vast area of the African continent and provides a lifeline and livelihood for millions of people.
To ensure that the waters of the Nile are developed and managed in a sustainable way, the Nile Basin Initiative Secretariat officially opened its doors in Entebbe, Uganda, last week.
The opening came at the conclusion of the fifth meeting of the Nile Technical Advisory Committee—the technical arm of the recently launched Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). The initiative is a new regional partnership, supported and facilitated by the World Bank and others, within which countries of the Nile basin have united in common pursuit of the river's sustainable development and management.
The Nile River Basin straddles 10 countries and is home to 250 million of the world's poorest people. Water shortages are already faced by many areas of the region.
Building on earlier efforts, the NBI was launched in Dar es Salaam in February 1999. The initiative's inception and growth over the last eight months has been significant because for the first time in history, all Nile basin countries have expressed a serious concern about the need for joint discourse. They have agreed to pursue such discourse under the framework of the NBI as a transitional arrangement until a permanent legal and institutional framework is in place.
At the heart of the initiative is a shared vision of achieving "sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources." NBI member countries are Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The newly launched Nile Secretariat will be the nucleus for planning and coordination of NBI activities. It serves both the Technical Advisory Committee and the Nile Council of Ministers, the NBI's highest decisionmaking body. The council is made up of water affairs ministers of the Nile basin states. The Technical Advisory Committee supports the Council of Ministers and is made up of senior officials from member countries.
During its deliberations last week, working groups of the Technical Advisory Committee examined various priority projects including efficient water use for agricultural production, opportunities for power trade in the basin, and water resources planning and management. Other project areas discussed include environmental analysis and management, applied training, and public information. The meetings were significant in that they now take the NBI process from planning to more substantive work on the ground.
Guests at the launch ceremony included senior officials of government and representatives of the Nile Basin states, members of the diplomatic corps in Uganda, representatives of various international and bilateral donor agencies and regional organizations. Ugandan Minister of Water, Lands and Environment Henry Kajura emphasized the NBI's role in helping to reduce poverty in the basin and commended the initiative for the remarkable progress achieved thus far.
Kajura, himself a member of the NBI Council of Ministers, described the Nile Basin Initiative as an opportunity for win-win development, and one that could only have a positive impact on the entire Nile Basin community as it underscored the advantages of sharing the benefits of water.
Other donors include the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Many other development partners are now joining in their support of the Initiative, including the Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the governments of Italy, Netherlands, Finland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway and Sweden. The cooperative partners all expressed their continued commitment and support for the Nile Basin Initiative.
