Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

S H A R I N G W A T E R : D E F I N I N G A C O M M O N I N T E R E S T / 3 1 5Box 12.8: Water sharing as an instrument of regional integration – the Nile basinThe Nile River is the longest river in the world (nearly 6,700km) and has historically been one of the world’s greatestnatural assets. It has nourished livelihoods, an array ofecosystems and a rich diversity of cultures since pharaonictimes. It is a transboundary river shared among ten Africancountries (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt,Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and theUnited Republic of Tanzania). Its catchment covers one tenthof Africa’s landmass and the population of its riparian statesamounts to about 300 million, or 40 percent, of Africans.Today the Nile basin faces the challenges of poverty(four riparians rank amongst the ten poorest counties inthe world), instability (conflicts in the Great Lakes, Sudanand the Horn of Africa), rapid population growth, andsevere environmental degradation (especially in the EastAfrican Highlands). The basic premise of the meeting tomobilize funds for joint regional development is that theNile offers significant opportunities for cooperativemanagement and development. When tapped, these willresult in greater regional integration, which in turn willallow better socio-economic development to meet thosechallenges mentioned. Such socio-economic benefits areexpected to exceed the direct benefits from the river alone.Recognizing this, the Council of Ministers of WaterResources (NILE-COM) launched the Nile Basin Initiative(NBI) in February 1999. This initiative includes all riparianstates and provides an agreed basin-wide framework tofight poverty and promote socio-economic development inthe Nile basin. The NBI is guided by a shared vision ‘toachieve sustainable socio-economic development throughthe equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the commonNile water resources’.This vision is to be realized through a Strategic ActionProgramme comprising both basin-wide as well as subbasinjoint investment projects ranging from collaborativeactions, experience and information sharing and capacitybuilding.A set of seven initial projects have beenendorsed by the NILE-COM, and the first InternationalConsultative Consortium on The Nile (ICCON) meeting washeld in June 2000 to solicit funding for these projects andto support the NBI secretariat. These projects are:■ Nile Transboundary Environmental Action;■ Nile Basin Power Trade;■ Efficient Water Use for Agricultural Production;■ Water Resources Planning and Management;■ Confidence-Building and Stakeholder Involvement(Communication);■ Applied Training;■ Socio-economic Development and Benefit Sharing; and■ in addition to these Shared Vision Projects, groups ofriparians – one in the Eastern (Blue) Nile and the otherin the Nile Equatorial Lakes (White) – have identifiedjoint and mutually beneficial investment opportunitiesat the sub-basin level called the Subsidiary ActionPrograms (the Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Program[ENSAP], and the Nile Equatorial Lakes SubsidiaryAction Program [NELSAP], respectively).The Nile Basin Initiative is extremely promising as an exampleof water sharing as an instrument of regional integration.Source: Based on a document prepared by UNECA for the First Annual Report on RegionalIntegration in Africa, 2002.in the way of incentive to cooperate, even less so the health ofaquatic ecosystems. This problem gets worse as the dispute gains inintensity. One rarely hears talk about the ecosystems of the lowerNile, the lower Jordan or the Aral Sea – they have effectively beenwritten off to the vagaries of human intractability (although thereare projects to stabilize the delta of the Aral Sea).Basin-level water institutions: capacity-building opportunitiesThe cooperative water institutions referenced above are part of alarger history of basin-level treaty writing that has developed overthe centuries. In contrast with the naturally vague and occasionallycontradictory global declarations and principles, the institutionsdeveloped by coriparian nations have been able to focus on specific,regional conditions and concerns. An evaluation of these institutions