Leaders of the Nile Basin countries have expressed interests in collaborating in efforts aganist effects of climate change among its member states prone to draught.
This was agreed during the third Nile Basin Development Forum (NBDF) held in Kigali, under the theme “Climate Change and its implications for Sustainable Development and Cooperation in the Nile Basin – Threats and Opportunities to Nile Basin Cooperation”.
The Senate President, Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, insisted that it is time for African leaders to come up with concrete action plans against climate change.
Ntawukuriryayo further pointed out that the measures should be able to ensure better management and development of the continent’s water Resources.
“We should be able to integrate all our initiatives in the fight against climate change and bearing in mind a need for synergistic interventions that ensure beneficial use of the available resources,” Said Ntawukuriryayo.
His remarks were backed by Rwanda’s Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Stanislas Kamanzi, that climate change is one of the human challenges and is felt at the global level hence leaders shouldn’t be stuck in unilateral nor bilateral negations but rather focus on concrete actions.
Gustavo Saltiel, the World Bank program manager for water resources, was quick to assure the bank’s commitment in facilitating activities aimed fighting climate change.
He however called for relevant researches and creation of policies that would especially eradicate the current Climate change on the Nile Basin.
Meanwhile, Egyptian ambassador to Rwanda Khaled Abdel Rahman who’s country highly depends on the river, noted that member states in the Nile basin should come up with activities that assist countries dependent on the Nile river, here he meant Northern-Sudan and his country which have large parts of drought land.
“For the meantime we’re still negotiating how we won’t be affected, and also I want to correct romours that my country is collaborating with Nothern Sudan to join the East Africa Community in order to control Nile policies,” Rahman remarked.
On this light, Kenyan Minister for water and irrigation, Charity Kaluki Ngilu, agreed that the Horn of Africa is experiencing famine caused by prolonged droughts and that impact was affecting the region.
Therefore, in order to address the problem Ngilu proposed the establishment of a permanent commission of the Nile Basin though signing of the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA).
“we should move faster and establish the commission I also encourage Sudan and Egypt to cooperate and sign the CFA,” she recommended.
The NBDF is a regular event that, starting from 2006, is held after every two years. This year’s Forum, the third in a series, is organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources of Rwanda.
At the ceremony, Ngilu who is also the chair of the NBI launched some of its key products recently finalized and approved by its Governing Board. These include the second release of Nile-Decision Support System (Nile-DSS).
The first ever River Nile State of Basin report, which is currently under preparation, will be introduced. Among other things, this report provides access to accurate, credible and timely information to help in raising awareness and increasing understanding and appreciation about the natural environment, the people, communities and economic development of the basin.
The NBI has recently produced the Nile Basin Sustainability Framework. This is a suite of policies, strategies and guidelines through which the NBI will ensure that its activities are sustainable.
It will also be used to ensure that the development and management of the Nile Basin water resources undertaken by NBI Member States with facilitation of the NBI are in accordance with the principles of integrated water resources.
The last one is, Nile Information System (Nile-IS) which is a web-based knowledge management tool that allows easy storage, searching, organizing, retrieval, analyzing as well as disseminating and exchanging information collected from NBI programs and projects.
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