Why is Nile River basin Monitoring important?

By Ange de la Victoire DUSABEMUNGU

Monitoring is often carried out for the purpose of performing an action that has a firm plan but is considered to be effective at a given time. In terms of Water Resources Monitoring, experts believe that it is important because it provides information that is used in water resources planning as well as in the management of Water Resources, among other aspects.

Speaking at the Webinar on the “Enhanced River Nile Basin Monitoring for improved Water Resources Collaborative Management and Development,’ Eng. Mark Woodbury, Water Resources Management Consultant and Owner at Mainspring Water Resources LLC, said that “River basin monitoring is obviously the foundation for knowledge and decisions that ultimately have impacts as we attempt to improve socio-economic conditions in a region where we are undertaking the monitoring.”

The webinar was organized as part of the ongoing 6^th Nile Basin Development Forum under the theme “Rethinking regional investments in the Nile Basin around Water | Energy | Food | Environment | Climate Change.

The question for the Webinar was How the Enhanced River Basin Monitoring can improve and promote cooperation towards accelerating the investment program with the Nile Basin.

According to Eng. Mark Woodbury “It is important to appreciate that consistent data for an extended period of record is generally more useful than a dense Network that only operate for a couple of years”

He explained that in conducting the Monitoring of the Nile Basin or any other Basin, it should be done with a long-term objective in mind.

“When we undertake to do monitoring, we need to be having a long view and thinking about what we can sustain in not just for a year or two, but the value that comes from operation in an extended period of time and supplies the data that are needed for hydrologic services, water resources planning and for management of water resources systems and in operations.” He explained.

He said there are innumerable water resources management issues in the Nile basin that exist between states, between cities, and to be addressed, those issues require cooperation adding that the context of trans-boundary cooperation can apply at many levels whether there is between countries, or within countries.

According to the Nile Basin Management Plan, the 10 countries along the River Nile should have a shared water and weather monitoring system to promote efficient water use and inform water-sharing negotiations.

‘A single weak link in a chain-linked (integrated) system, weakens the whole system; strengthening the system requires strengthening every link’ – Eng. Mark Woodbury said.

According to Eng. Mark Woodbury “A well designed system, carefully operated and maintained over an extended period of time will find application and value in ways anticipated but never imagined by those who laid the foundation”

The longest river in the world, the Nile drains around 10% of the African continent. Its catchment area is shared by Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, and DR Congo.

That makes the river a theme for political interaction and more than once has jolted relations of riparian states that share the river with distinct variations, uses and interests.

Egypt and Ethiopia, and sometimes Sudan are the usual warring parties over the river’s waters; they have been at loggerheads since 2011, when Ethiopia started building the 6.5-gigawatt Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, set to be the largest dam in Africa.

While each country along the river has some hydromet capacity, NBI studies have found substantial gaps in the monitoring infrastructure.