Nile River Basin

Developing rainwater management strategies

The Nile basin has a population of around 160 million people and covers 10 countries: Burundi, D.R. Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, North Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Among others, there are challenges relating to water quality and aquaculture in Egypt; irrigated crops, residue management and livestock in Sudan; constraints and opportunities for fisheries in Uganda; and rainwater management and land degradation in the highlands of Ethiopia.

CPWF focuses on the issue of low rainwater productivity, its causes and its consequences, in the Ethiopian Highlands. CPWF chose this challenge based on its principle of working on well-defined problems in specific areas.

High population pressure and use of marginal land are causing land and ecosystem degradation in many parts of the Blue Nile. The high sediment loads result in large costs for irrigation canal cleaning and reservoir dredging in the downstream countries of Sudan and Egypt. Ecosystem degradation also results in a downward spiral of poverty and food insecurity for millions of people in Ethiopia and the downstream countries. While much of the earlier growth in food production came from land expansion in the upstream countries and irrigated agriculture in downstream countries, the next big step is expected from rainfed agriculture, which currently accounts for the majority of water flux in the basins.