Nile River Basin

Visit website: http://www.cpnile.net/

The problems of the Nile region are as interconnected as the basin’s very waterways—each flows into the next. Among the most serious challenges are poverty and food insecurity, water shortages, land degradation and pollution from effluents. Deforestation and cultivation of steep slopes have led to heavy soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and sedimentation of lakes and reservoirs. The Nile has also become seriously polluted by agro chemicals, untreated sewage and industrial waste.

Despite all these problems, however, the resources of this large and complex water system—containing ecosystems as diverse as equatorial Africa’s Lake Victoria and Egypt’s Mediterranean delta 3,500 km to the north—have enormous potential to address poverty.

The CPWF recognizes that efficient water use, environmental protection, poverty alleviation, and the promotion of peace and security are critical issues for the region. Directly or indirectly, the program’s scientific agenda reflect these overriding concerns.

Research priorities include:

  • Enhancing rainfed agriculture in upper basin areas

  • Identifying practical water saving technologies

  • Improving human health

  • Increasing river yield from swamps and through control of aquatic weeds in open water courses and lakes

  • Promoting sustainable fisheries

  • Improving hydropower potential

The transboundary nature of the Nile Basin presents formidable obstacles to sustainable resource use and national economic development. Unilateral management and control of each country’s individual territory cannot, over the long term, benefit the region as a whole. Equitable and effective water allocation and environmental protection depend on institutionalized regional cooperation. The Challenge Program on Water and Food offers a multidisciplinary research framework for the design of transboundary solutions to the Nile Basin’s many challenges. The program, led by Egypt’s National Water Research Center, is complementing ongoing activities and cooperating with national and other stakeholder organizations in the region. Results of this work will be particularly valuable in other regions where water sharing and basin management require joint action by several countries.

Basin Coordinator:

Mohamed Abdel Meguid,
National Water Research Center, Ministry of Water Resource and Irrigation (NWRC)
Fum Ismailia Canal, P. O. Box 74,
Shoubra El-Kheima 13411, Egypt
Phone: +202 (444) 7353/6180
Fax: +202 (444) 6761/7846
abdel_meguid@maktoob.com

Nile Basin Overview

Basin area: 3.1 million km2, including 81,500 km2 of lakes and 70,000 km2 of swamps

Basin population: 160 million, or 57% of the entire population of the basin’s 10 riparian countries: Burundi, D.R. Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda

Percentage rural: Burundi, 93%; D.R. Congo, 71%; Egypt , 57%; Ethiopia, 84.6%; Kenya, 71.4%; Rwanda, 94%; Sudan, 67%; Tanzania, 75.8%; Uganda, 88.1%. Figures are for each country’s entire population.

People below the poverty line ($1/day): About 50%.

994 GNP per capita income ranged between USD 100 and 790

Percentage contribution of agriculture to GDP: Ranges from 17% in Egypt to 55% in Ethiopia

Mean annual rainfall: 615 mm, with a maximum of 2,060 mm

Climate: Highly variable, with extremes manifested in floods and droughts

Primary water uses: irrigation, industry, domestic supply, hydropower, and navigation

Irrigated area of the basin: 5.5 million ha, with potential of 10.2 million ha

Environmental conservation areas: More than 100 protected areas in 9 countries (excludes Eritrea). Total includes portions of countries not within the basin.