NILE BASIN RESEARCH (N-AFRICA)
Water Users/ Stakeholders
The land-locked economies of the upper Nile region are characterized by an expensive road transportation and logistics. The transport infrastructure between upstream and downstream riparians remain weak, although the African Union made efforts to strengthen the road interconnections. There is still a lack of a reliable and cost-effective north-south transportation link which causes a lost opportunity for regional integration.
Water demand is characterized by an increasing need for domestic use. There is a growing number of “water stressed” countries in the basin. The following graph shows the water resources availability per capita for two of the riparian countries:
The water users are facing a high stress level which is supposed to remain in future. The forecast for future water availability shows decreasing water resources. The scarcity level remains for future forecasts constant, somehow between the stress level an the water availability. The following table shows for the riparian countries Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan the freshwater withdrawal:
Table: Water use
| Year | Total Freshwater Withdrawal (km³/yr) | Per Capita Withdrawal (m³/p/yr) | Domestic Use (%) | Industrial Use (%) | Agricultural Use (%) |
2005 Population (millions) |
| 2000 | 68.30 | 932 | 8 | 6 | 86 | 74.03 |
| 2002 | 5.56 | 72 | 6 | 0 | 94 | 77.43 |
| 2000 | 37.32 | 1,030 | 3 | 1 | 97 | 36.23 |
References and further reading:
Conway, D. (2000) The climate and hydrology of the Upper Blue Nile, Ethiopia, Geographical Journal, 166, 49–62.
Camberlin, P. (2009) Nile Basin Climates, The Nile: Origin, Environments, Limnology and Human Use.
NBI (2012) State of the River Nile Basin Report, Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) Publishing, Entebbe, Uganda.
Sutcliffe, J., Parks, Y. P. (1999) The Hydrology of the Nile, IAHS Special Publication no. 5, IAHS Press, Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 8BB, UK, p. 33, and 57–87, 1999.
Wolman, M. G., Giegengack, R. F. (2008) The Nile River: Geology, Hydrology, Hydraulic Society, Large Rivers. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 471–490.
UNEP (2013) Adaptation to Climate-change Induced Water Stress in the Nile Basin: A Vulnerability Assessment Report, Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi, Kenya.
