The Nile Basin Initiative has been running under 2012 2016 Action Plans. The Ministers at the Entebbe meeting will agree on a new strategy for the period 20172027.
Water Ministers from the River Nile Basin meet in Kampala on Thursday to discuss a new ten-year plan on fostering cooperation around the river's water resources.
The meeting attended by water ministers from the 11 countries is expected to discuss sustainable trans-boundary water resources management , improving food security and increasing hydropower development using the Nile Waters.
The utilization River Nile waters for electricity power generation remains a contentious issue especially with countries like Sudan and Egypt opposed to the construction of huge dams like Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Hydrology and water governance experts have however advised the dams may not be huge threat to the countries sharing River Nile. They say hydro power can be source of cooperation.
The Republic of South Sudan Minister of Energy and Dams, Dr. Dhieu Mathok in an interview said it is of importance that countries agree on how to use the resources foe electricity and irrigation.
Mathok says a country like his with huge hydro power potential continues to rely on its neighbors for electricity. He says extension electricity to South Sudan would help in proving the conditions.
////Cue In “we have potentiality
Cue Out ….return of the IDPS“////
The Republic of South Sudan, is one of the Nile's downstream riparian countries. It has been a member of Nile Basin Initiative since June 2012.
The Nile river basin contains
more than 10% of Africa's landmass in 11 countries: Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Egypt, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea and Kenya. And many of these countries rely almost exclusively on the Nile as its source of freshwater.
A statement from Nile Basin Secretariat in Kampala says the Ministers will also discuss the protection and restoration water related ecosystems across the Nile basin.
The meeting to be held just after one by Ministers from Nile Equatorial Lakes will also discuss how to improve the basin's resilience to climate change impacts.
The Nile Basin Initiative has been running under 2012 ‐ 2016 Action Plans. The minister at the Entebbe meeting will agree on a new strategy for the period 2017‐2027.
The new strategy according to a sources will generally set priorities for the Nile Basin Initiative in the coming 10 years. The next ten years are expected to be crucial as the countries strive to agree on Entebbe Agreement also known as the Cooperative Framework Agreement, drafted as part of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI).
The Entebbe Agreement was signed in 2010 by six Nile Basin countries, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi, to overturn British –colonial era agreements dating back to 1929. Until 2010, the 1929 agreement) gave Egypt and Sudan 90 percent of the Nile's water flow and the power of veto over dam-building.
