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iplomacy
confidence and mutuality; and paving the way for cooperative
development such as water resources investment and planning and
management of the shared Nile water resources. Forums created
and facilitated by NBI have brought together decision and policy
makers, technicians, engineers, academicians and other experts
from across the basin.
As a result, nobody in the basin any longer questions whether
cooperation on the Nile is necessary, desirable or doable. Rather, the
conversation has shifted focus onto how to promote and expedite
it. Today, in contrast to the past, Nile riparians share data, own a
jointly developed state-of-the-art decision support system and work
together in the planning of water resources development projects
with transboundary significance. This has resulted in joint identifi-
cation and preparation of over US$1 billion of investment projects
in the power, agriculture, water supply, and watershed management
and fishery sectors. Further, NBI provides the necessary enabling
policy framework for transboundary cooperation.
Fostering transboundary water resources management
Shared knowledge systems are vital for transboundary coopera-
tion. NBI has accumulated a comprehensive knowledge base on the
water and related resources of the Nile. A system of portals has been
launched to enhance public access to NBI knowledge resources.
The first comprehensive State of the Nile River Basin report was
published in 2012.
NBI developed and operationalized a number of water resources
planning and management analytic tools. These include the Nile
Equatorial Lakes and Eastern Nile planning models, and the Nile
Basin Decision Support System (DSS). The Nile Basin DSS provides
the necessary modelling and decision-making tools for collabora-
tive water resources planning and management. The Nile Basin
Agricultural Trade and Productivity Model and a number of toolkits
for specific applications have also been developed.
NBI has formulated, and is at various stages of implementing, an
environment and social policy, environmental and social safeguards
guidelines, wetlands management strategy and climate
change strategy.
Cooperative development of shared water resources
NBI assists member states by preparing water resources
investment projects, which provide benefits and distrib-
ute costs among participating countries. In pursuit of
this, NBI facilitates agreements between countries for
investment financing and for future management.
Examples of such projects include:
• the regional transmission interconnection project
(where an estimated 1,000 km of transmission lines
are under construction to facilitate power trade
among Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo),
and completion of the Ethiopia-Sudan transmission
interconnection project
• the 80 MW Regional Rusumo falls project of
Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda
• a transboundary fisheries and watershed
management programme in the Lakes Edward and
Albert region (Uganda/DR Congo)
• a regional irrigation and watershed management
project in Tanzania, expected to develop around
22,000 ha of irrigated agriculture
• the Eastern Nile Power Trade Investment Program,
which studied the hydropower development and
power trade potentials of the Blue Nile-Main Nile
and prepared an investment sequencing plan
• the Eastern Nile Irrigation and Drainage study.
Smallholder irrigation programmes have also been
implemented in the Mara Basin (Tanzania-Kenya).
Based on a recent multi-sector investment opportunity
A degraded watershed in the Blue Nile basin
Image: Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office