http://allafrica.com/stories/201702130020.html

 

Celebrating Nile Day. The Rive Nile stretches an estimated 4,132 miles from its source to its mouth north in Egypt, which makes it the world's second longest river after Amazon. It is shared by more than five states which 17 years ago conceived an idea of a body, Nile Basin Initiative [NBI], through which they can iron out their differences over the water. On February 22, delegates from the Nile sharing countries will be convening in Tanzania to mark the Nile Day which is preceded by various activities to celebrate the river's wonders. Sunday Monitor's Frederic Musisi caught up with NBI's executive director Innocent Ntabana.

 

How important is this day for the Riparian states (R. Nile sharing states)?

The Nile Day, for us, is an opportunity to create awareness among the basin communities on the importance of the River Nile but also on the need to take care of the river wherever it passes in each country; knowing it is a shared resource.

In Uganda, we know we have the Nile; it runs our hydropower dams, it's a tourism hub and maybe some communities along its route benefit directly. But generally you don't see that great sense of appreciation that what we have is the second longest river in the world. How do we fit in the picture?

We keep rotating the day's celebrations in all member countries as one of the ways to reach many people as we can but also to get people to appreciate. But that notwithstanding the Nile Day is an opportunity for each country to relay that message that the river is for us all sharing it and that strengthening cooperation is crucial not just at the community level but even at the country level.

Why did NBI this time chose to focus on "energy, food and water for all" yet there are more pressing challenges the riparian states are grappling with?

You may be aware that NBI is in the phase of preparing its 10 year strategy and for the first time we deemed it important to highlight the importance of food security in the framework of water resource management; which is why we are promoting this theme, the nexus between water and food.

But on the other hand, you might be already aware that the world is facing the problem of climate change and already there is information that last year, 2016, was the hottest year for at least the last 20 years.

So climate change is real and happening and likely to affect the water itself and consequently, water and food, which is why we need to raise awareness about this these matters.

How severe/widespread is the problem of food insecurity against that backdrop?

First of all, whenever you hear that there is a conflict around water; it is mainly for food production, among other purposes. Now if you look at what is happening in our region, many countries have experienced long drought which has resulted into crop failure.

Worth noting is that food production cannot be separated from water; and that is why we deem it important to integrate water management and food security.

Are the Riparian states appreciating these emerging complex problems, take for example climate change?

Of course, there is still a lot to do in engaging communities on the ground to understand the complexity of the challenges but also most importantly the trans-boundary nature of the water they are using and the big work we [NBI] have to do, in coordination with individual states because as a regional body there are some hurdles we cannot jump and have to go through the countries.

There seems to be a substantial shortfall on strategies to cope with increasing problems affecting the Nile across the basin like pollution, water resource management, and deficit in the commitment by the Riparian states to what the NBI stands for

We have two approaches to that; under water resource management, we conduct analyses to the assessments which provide critical decision making by each country, and secondly we also develop strategies/guidelines which countries use to mainstream all these issues in their national water strategies--this helps to check each country's commitment but at the same time up with the updating of the various strategies.

So in what way do you think the Riparian states have created adequate linkage between the themes of this year's celebrations and the Nile waters?

That varies from one country to another; there are countries where water is more sensitive than others, and for them [they] understand quickly and try to jump into any proposal we have. But others where the impact of climate change is not severe, they are very slow in appreciating and even implementing some of these issues.

There are problems like climate change which seem complex in the sense and or even easily manifest with temperatures dropping or increasing, but it is a huge challenge that is affecting the river waters.

Then there are other challenges like flooding; take for example right now some parts of Uganda have been experiencing long droughts but when the rains came, they came with high intensity destroying crops, property--which itself is a bigger problem.

You are celebrating the Nile Day but at the same time the Riparian states are rife with misunderstandings. Doesn't that seem a contradiction?

Well, I would say this is something that is normal, especially in a setting where we have a shared resource. It is true each country has specific concerns; downstream countries, which are already facing the impacts of climate change, feel the water is not enough or need to safeguard what they already have while upstream countries on the other hand also look at this same water as a requirement to meet their development demands.

How to reconcile these concerns is where some people feel the potential for conflict but that is why we have this platform to address the issue. But generally having misunderstandings is common and over time the stakeholders try to reach a common ground.

After the celebrations what exactly will you as NBI and Riparian states be looking at?

The celebrations come, just after we are about to rollout our 10 year strategy. We have made an assessment of the past 17 years of NBI and drawn lessons from it, which has guided the new strategy coming up. In it we have added to aspects of food security and water management to reflect the current situation and what we shall be focusing on a lot.

Does the new plan also include gazetting each member's key concerns to be addressed formidably in the next 10 years?

Of course; cooperation is really one programme that remains across all the programmes we had and still remains across the new strategy. The second is water resource management to ensure that water is available for everyone, and to achieve this we will continue doing more assessments to establish how much water we have and how it can be shared equitably.

Politics of the Nile

For most of the 20th century, the Nile River has been the source of political tensions and low-intensity conflicts among three of its major riparian countries (Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt).

However, since the late 1990s, the Nile basin countries--with the encouragement and support of the international community--have made some attempts to establish basin-wide cooperative institutions.

This process of engagement and collaboration is presently under severe stress due to increasing demand and decreasing supply of water resources in the basin.

This situation may be complicated further by the global climate change, which is anticipated to result in long-term changes in the volume and pattern of runoff in the Nile River system.