The 5th Edition of the Nile Basin Development Forum is scheduled to take place in Kigali-Rwanda from October 23-25, 2017.
The Forum – is a policy dialogue platform that brings together members of the public, the academia, civil society, donors and government officials to debate topical issues of common interest surrounding the utilisation of the resources of the Nile river.
This year’s forum will run under the theme: “Investing in Nile Cooperation for a secure water future.”
The choice of the theme on Nile Cooperation seems to be timely considering the growing need for water among member countries arising from rising demand for water agricultural production as well as to support the growing population in the 10-member countries that share the basin.
The challenges of rising demand for food and water in the basin is being complicated by other problems particularly climate change that is causing a host of other problems such as even more demand for water for irrigation, flooding, increased silting of rivers, destruction of ecosystems etc.
As remarked by Pavlos Evangelides, who represented the European Union at last week’s Nile Council of Ministers meeting held in Entebbe, Uganda, the more challenges face member countries, the greater the need to cooperate in order to address those challenges. The Nile Basin Initiative, and its two subsidiary army, are some of the indicators that members countries chose to invest in Cooperation other than competition for the Nile’s resources.
Recent efforts to persuade Egypt to resume active participation in the NBI platform is another indicator of the efforts that authorities from 9 member countries that make up the Nile Basin.
True to the Forum’s theme, most of the academic papers lined up for presentation and discussion seek to explore the factors influencing the current status, as well projected demand for water use for agriculture and energy.
Other topics, such as on the Economic Valuation of Wetlands Ecosystems for Wise Use, Review and Case Studies from the Nile Basin as well as those touching on politics, including one titled; The Emotional River: The Hydro political Psychology of the Nile promise to be as exciting.
