River Nile in Egypt. East African countries are positioning themselves
to benefit from irrigation and hydroelectric power projects along the
River Nile. PHOTO | FILE
By MOSES ODHIAMBO
In Summary
- East African countries are positioning themselves to benefit from irrigation and hydroelectric power projects along the River Nile.
- Most of the $6 billion projects that have been in development for the past 16 years will be commissioned by 2017.
- The 10 countries sharing the Nile’s waters — Kenya, Egypt, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Burundi — are all involved in the projects.
East African countries are positioning themselves to benefit
from irrigation and hydroelectric power projects along the River Nile.
Eleven of 30 of such projects, commissioned under the Nile Basin
Initiative (NBI), will soon be completed after funding bottlenecks are
addressed.
NBI executive director John Nyaoro told The EastAfrican that most of the $6 billion projects that have been in development for the past 16 years will be commissioned by 2017.
Mr Nyaoro said that already, projects worth $1.3 billion are at
various stages of implementation while 19 others have been lined up for
implementation as soon as funds are made available.
Sourcing funding
The 10 countries sharing the Nile’s waters — Kenya, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Sudan and Burundi — are all involved in the projects.
The ministers in charge of water resources in these countries
are working on ways of sourcing funding for the completion of the joint
projects that seek to connect countries in the entire basin to clean
energy resources for rapid industrialisation.
“One such power connection involves Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda,
Burundi and South Sudan and another connects Ethiopia to Sudan,” said Mr
Nyaoro.
The interconnections have been made easier by construction of
electricity transmission lines to handle the increased wattage.
According to Mr Nyaoro, most of these lines will be commissioned by the
end of 2016.
A series of activities have been lined up to celebrate the Nile Basin Initiative.
The initiative came into being on February 22, 1999 and has been expanded in the past 16 years despite funding challenges.
Effects of overfishing
There is also a fisheries project that seeks to mitigate the
effects of overfishing on Lakes Edward and Albert under the Lakes Edward
And Albert Fisheries and Water Resources Management Project funded by
the African Development Bank.
“We want to regulate how Uganda and DRC manage the resources in
the two lakes for sustainability. The regulations will deal with piracy
and other attacks on fishermen,” Mr Nyaoro said. “Communities that live
around the rivers that are at the risk of destruction are also being
given alternative means of earning a livelihood through beekeeping, fish
ponds and dairy farming.
The NBI is also installing technologies that give early warnings for floods and droughts.
Mutaz Musa Salim, chairman of the Nile Council of Ministers,
said all states must make a commitment towards mobilisation of resources
to support the joint ventures.
“We still have a gap in funding, since only $1.3 billion of the
required $6 billion has been received. This threatens the sustainability
of the projects. We must now do more by engaging NBI’s traditional and
non-traditional development partners,” said Mr Salim, who is the
Sudanese Minister for Water Resources, Irrigation and Electricity.
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