Abstract:
River Nile is one of the longest transboundery rivers
and it is shared and used by Burundi, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. As of today, the Nile is a crucial resource for
the economic development of the Nile Basin countries and a vital
source of livelihood for 160 million inhabitants as well as 300
million people living in the 10 riparian countries. The Nile Basin
Initiative (NBI) is one of the international cooperative river basin
management program and regional partnership where all the Nile
Basin countries except Eritrea unite to pursue long-term sustainable development, improved land use practices and management.
This review therefore focused on the challenges not faced on NBI
in terms of integrated use of the river and conducted analysis of
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) based
on secondary data. The result of the review revealed that for
decades, the Nile Basin people have been facing many complex
environmental, social, economic and political challenges that have
made it difficult for the proper management and sustainability of
Nile water. The initiative provides training to develop skills in
government ministries, non-governmental organizations and local
communities in each country. It is also working to raise awareness of critical environmental issues by strengthening networks
of environmental education practitioners; developing curriculum
in the education sector. The challenges of NBI include the involvement and funding of World Bank, lack of sufficient staff,
procedural and policies conflicts, lack of coordination and linkage
with other regional institutions and lack of recognition as river
basin organization. Considering the complex nature of the project,
it is recommended that the NBI should come up with a strong
multi-disciplinary monitoring and evaluation team to follow up
all implemented projects. The NBI should carry out participatory
land use planning in communities along the river basin. Moreover,
livelihood analysis should be carried out especially in communities along the Nile to come up with poverty eradication projects
which are socially acceptable, applicable, economically viable
and affordable.
