PROJECT RATIONALE AND JUSTIFICATION

The waters of the Nile Basin offer great potential as a lever for development across a large part of the African continent. The fast demographic growth will accelerate demand for agricultural production and hydropower in this region, already vulnerable to drought. Realization of the economic potential of the basin requires targeted technical support in order to overcome barriers to joint management of the land and water resources of the basin. The basis for such cooperation is joint planning and equitable sharing of benefits flowing from the natural resource endowments of the basin.

The Government of Italy has been a pioneer in enabling an environment of trust and confidence, ensuring equal standing of information and knowledge accessible to all, and in working towards consensus on development scenarios.

Involvement of the Italian Cooperation in Nile Basin cooperation started in 1996 with project GCP/RAF/286/ITA "Operational water resources management and information system in the Nile Basin countries". This project was executed by FAO and received funding of US$ 5 024 798. It was operational from April 1996 to November 1999. It built a strong foundation of technical and human capacity in the Nile countries for water resources assessment, management and planning.

In 1999, the Nile riparian states created the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). This historic initiative includes all Nile riparian countries and provides a basin-wide framework for cooperation. It pursues shared vision development through the equitable utilization of, and benefits from, the common Nile resource. The NBI programme consists of two complementary subprogrammes: the Shared Vision Program, and the Subsidiary Action Program. The former focuses on fostering an enabling environment for cooperative development, while the latter addresses physical investments at sub-basin level.

The project GCP/INT/752/ITA "Capacity building for Nile-Basin water resources management" which followed the previous GCP/RAF/286/ITA was again funded by the Government of Italy, and was implemented as part of the NBI Shared Vision Program. All ten Nile Basin states participated in the project, which was executed by FAO and guided by a steering committee composed of representatives of all participating countries, the donor and FAO. The project, which had a budget of US$5 999 979, started in December 1999 and closing in October 2004. This brought to more than US$11 million the total contribution of the Government of Italy to equitable and sustainable Nile basin water resources development within a transboundary basin-wide approach.

DESCRIPTION

The overarching goals of both projects were: (i) provide capacity in support of cooperation and joint action for development in the Nile Basin; and (ii) foster prosperity, security and peace for all people in the basin. Towards these ends, the projects strived to create a common knowledge base and equal technical capacity as a prerequisite for equitable and sustainable utilization of the shared Nile waters.

Building a common knowledge base encompassed several areas, including: (i) building common data sets; (ii) creating common scenario assessment tools; and (iii) supporting an equal level of technical expertise and institutional capacity.

The projects focused on four main areas:

a. establishment of a transboundary hydrometeorological monitoring network;

b. establishment of national georeferenced databases and spatial layers including hydrometeorological parameters, water use information, hydrographic features, land use, land cover, and soil types;

c. development of a Nile decision-support tool (Nile DST) that models the entire Nile system and assesses the trade-offs and consequences of various development scenarios;

d. improving capacity in setting out the needs of the institutional basis for cooperation and in promoting stakeholder involvement.

ACTIVITIES

Capacity building in support of creating a common knowledge base was the central theme of all project activities. It included technical, institutional and human capacities. A major effort was made to strengthen the national capacity in the riparian countries for sustainable data acquisition. In fact, availability of basic hydrometeorological information has an immediate effect on the accuracy and effectiveness of water resources assessment and planning.

The projects have re-established and upgraded almost 100 hydrometeorological stations. Modern monitoring technologies were introduced, including automatic weather stations and acoustic Doppler current profilers. The latter are efficient, cost-effective instruments for flow measurement. In most rivers, the portable Doppler current profiler is operated from a boat or a float, thereby removing the need to build an expensive cableway. The projects further established two buoys to measure water evaporation on Lake Nasser in Egypt, providing ground truth for satellite-based evaporation assessment.

A comprehensive training programme accompanied the introduction of the new technologies. In each country, and for each new instrument, the project created a core group of qualified and well-trained operators. They serve as trainers for their national colleagues aiming to broaden the user base and disseminate the expertise introduced. The new technologies are now well established, and further network expansion can draw confidently on the operational experience and skills acquired. Scattered data sets, databases, and data layers from a host of different institutions were organized at national level in a comprehensive georeferenced Nile Basin database in a standard structure.

All the basin countries have adopted the data structure, which was designed in an interactive process with the respective water resources agencies. This standard data structure facilitates seamless and rapid data exchange once the riparian countries have established mechanisms for data sharing. A common structure is also essential for developing basin-wide assessment instruments such as the Nile DST. Counterpart staff prepared comprehensive inventories of existing data sources in all basin states. They also transferred a considerable volume of historical paper records into digital format. A limited set of spacial geographically referenced layers was prepared. The distributed Nile Basin database is a core element of the common Nile Basin knowledge base.

A significant effort was made to strengthen database and geographical information system skills at the respective national departments. Capacity building events included national and regional workshops, as well as dedicated training at qualified local information technology training centres. At an experimental level, the project used Internet training facilities, with promising results. A recent development has been to link into the international geographical information community for new data acquisition, training and solutions. All the basin states now have a relevant operational data unit, well equipped and well trained, that can provide essential information to decision-makers and policymakers at short notice. With a view to reducing the costs of information, the project is assessing the value and possible application of third-party data sources available through the Internet. Third-party data developers include international agencies, university-based research initiatives, and national programmes at a global scale. This development is especially useful for areas where data are scarce and which are difficult to access, as is the case in the Nile Basin. A comprehensive programme for data-quality control was designed and is in the process of being implemented, with staff at national level systematically reviewing the hydrometeorological data sets for structural errors and omissions.

The Nile DST was developed by the Georgia Water Resources Institute in the United States of America. This prototype software models the entire Nile Basin system and assesses the tradeoffs and consequences of various cross-sector and basin-wide development scenarios. The system allows the impacts of various levels of regional coordination to be examined, and serves as a cornerstone for information integration. When the Nile Council of Ministers released the Nile DST in February 2003, it represented the first time that all the basin states were able to use a common water resources assessment tool. It is an important element of the common knowledge base and it is also essential for arriving at a univocal language for discussing water use issues.

The Nile DST incorporates modules for river simulation and reservoir operation, agricultural planning, and watershed hydrology. The system also includes a comprehensive data-querying and visualization tool.

The projects organized several regional workshops in order to solicit input from decision-makers on the scope and detail of the system and to guide the future development of the Nile-DST. These consultative workshops provided an excellent platform for discussing and determining, through a participatory process, how to use DST technology to provide meaningful information for decision-making and policy-making regarding Nile Basin issues.

Ownership is essential for sustainability. In order to transfer DST technology to the basin countries, three major regional training events lasting several weeks were organized. The trainees have become familiar with the methodology and database structure of the Nile DST. They have become skilled in using the system for scenario assessment and for investigating development options. Since returning to their home countries, the trainees have conducted national Nile DST workshops in order to broaden the user and knowledge bases.

The legal, institutional and conflict resolution component was implemented through a series of national and international workshops. It promoted awareness at national level of the national and international legal aspects of comanagement of the Nile Basin resources. It discussed options for future cooperation in the Nile Basin, and assessed arrangements for international river basin management used elsewhere. It made a significant effort to strengthen national negotiation skills, and to create a common language for discussing the Nile negotiation framework. Workshop participants included lawyers and engineers, as well as other professionals and government officials involved in Nile issues.

OUTCOME

Water resources are a principal asset for development in the Nile Basin. The main result of the projects has been greater confidence at the level of each Nile Basin country in addressing the complex questions of making an enhanced use of the these resources for the benefit of the peoples concerned. The water resources of the Nile Basin are already used in various ways, of which agricultural irrigation is one. Further development of the waters of Nile Basin requires a full understanding of all the implications of such development for local people, for each riparian nation, and for the other nations that share the same resource. International aspects of Nile water development have been high on the agenda since the period of colonial rule.

The traditional concept of water allocation in terms of cubic metres of river flow has given way to the realization that what really matters is sharing the benefits that can be obtained from the resource.

The capacity and confidence to deal with Nile water issues in a constructive way and to generate much-needed investment was strengthened by the four main project components:

• Hydrometeorological stations were installed, and these are now operated by national staff and services. The support provided by the projects aimed mainly at enhancing the capacity and confidence to use adequate modern technology and to carry out the required field operations, followed on the spot by quality control and primary processing. Basic data collection, an expensive activity for financially strapped countries, is now much better focused on immediate water resources planning and development needs.

• A common Nile hydrometeorological database was developed in a participatory way and historical data have been transferred largely to this support. The existence of agreed data sets is a necessary condition for advancing water resources negotiations and joint development planning activities, leading towards agreement where benefits are equitably shared. The ability to present data in a geographically referenced mode and to overlay them so that they become socio-economic and political information has enabled much-improved communication with stakeholders. Self-reliance was also fostered through extensive use of local institutions for training in the use of standard computer software.

• Water development and management options were explored through the use of decision-support tools that were custom-made for the project. This activity has provided feedback on the availability and reliability of basic data, opening the way for further rationalization of data collection activities. The Nile Basin countries are now in a better position to steer support activities towards credibility and effective support of the decision-making process.

• Confidence among the basin countries in their own means and in knowing their own interests as well as those of the other partners in Nile water resources development has made significant progress. The effects have not only been at interstate level, but also at national level, through the involvement of technical and legal experts in exploring conflict-resolution techniques and searching for win-win solutions.

A long-term process for the settlement of perceived conflict and setting the basis for shared-benefit water development has been put in motion. At the same time, the development potential of the Nile Basin region has attracted funding at the pre-investment level. Further attention will be necessary in order to ensure that emerging development patterns yield tangible benefits in improving the livelihoods of the vulnerable, long-suffering populations of the Nile Basin.

BACK COVER

PROJECT GCP/INT/752/ITA
"Capacity building for Nile-Basin water resources management"