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Nile basin countries move to deal with climate changeNile basin countries move to deal with climate change Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 12/01 - Climate change and variability is spurring 10 riparian countries of the River Nile to speed up implementation of priority projects they have identified for socio- economic development through equitable utilisation of common water resources, it was said here Thursday. According to experts, decision makers and stakeholders in the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) attending the Nile Basin Development Forum 2006, development of the mutually accepted projects in water related areas would free millions of people from abject poverty. The three-day gathering is expected to come up with an action plan that would enable Nile basin countries to move towards their vision of sustainable socio-economic development, said NBI executive director Audace Ndayizeye. "This is an important occasion in the history of our co-operation in the Nile basin. The sustainable development of water resources on basin-wide and sub-basin levels is critical to alleviating the poverty and promoting growth in the basin countries," Ndayizeye remarked at the opening of the Forum. Countries participating in the NBI- Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda- have created a partnership with donors, civil society organizations and stakeholders in order to achieve their common goals. One of eight projects being carried out under the NBI shared vision programme is the Nile trans-boundary environmental action project, meant to provide a strategic framework for the management of waters and environment challenges in the Nile river basin. Started in January 2004, the US$43.6 million project is partly funded by the Nile countries and partly by the World Bank and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Many of the Nile basin countries rely on subsistence, rain-fed agriculture and remain vulnerable to frequent impacts of drought. "Recurrent drought, famine and floods have ravaged the economies of the basin states," said Ethiopia`s water resources minister, Asfaw Dingamo, noting that such extreme changes of weather had increased in intensity and frequency. Asfaw underlined the need for cooperation among the basin countries and with development partners, saying the NBI programmes and projects require huge investments. "The Nile is a very important asset. It is full of opportunities and potential that can be utilised to accelerate development and alleviate poverty... for the benefit of our peoples and our future generations," he added. Besides poverty, most of the Nile basin countries are currently faced with serious water, energy and food insecurity. These problems, said Tanzania`s minister for water, Shukuru Jumanne Kawambwa, "will be dealt with once a new and permanent institutional organization with legal recognition in all the Nile basin countries is put in place." Kawambwa called for a speedy implementation of the ongoing basin projects so that new investments could be undertaken. "There is need to upscale the projects in order to realise more benefits and impacts," he said, urging the NBI countries to internalise the projects in national plans and priorities. Countries of the Nile basin, sources at the Forum told PANA, were about to conclude negotiations on the cooperative framework that would usher in a Nile Basin Commission as a vehicle for economic integration in the region. Meanwhile, Kenya`s water and irrigation minister, John Mutua Katuku, has told the Forum that the development of water harvesting, power generation and flood mitigation structures has the potential to reduce the high poverty rates within the Nile basin and provide the area with a much stronger economic base. "With sustainable and viable water harvesting structures, we can reduce the perennial floods that submerge our lands, destroying crops, displacing our families and causing untold suffering to communities," he said. The main objective of this year`s Forum is to create and promote awareness on the NBI among international, economic and social development decision makers, policy advisors and development management actors on the benefits of good practices in the utilisation of the Nile River. Click HERE to go to the source of this article. |