Eugene Kwibuka
28 April 2007
Kigali — Rwanda will head the Socio-economic Development and Benefit Sharing Project (SDBS) of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) launched on Thursday, April 26.
The Water and Natural Resources Cluster will guide researches in the field of water and related resources.
The Water and Natural Resources Cluster, which is among five clusters of SDBS, is headed by Rwanda through National University of Rwanda (NUR)'s Faculty of Economics. It is made up of researchers from four riparian countries of Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Egypt.
The launch, during a two-day workshop organised by NUR, attracted over 40 participants that included researchers from riparian countries of River Nile, representatives of local civil society, and researchers from the university.
According to Dan Temu, the Regional Project Manager of SDBS, the various clusters created by this project should serve as channels to sensitise riparian people on how to share and use River Nile resources.
"The clusters are a means of creating and disseminating information," he told participants in the Butare workshop. "I'm very happy that we have already got a basis where we can start from."
The water cluster was given a task to identify researchable issues and themes of research in the field of water, related resources and livelihood in its member riparian countries by July this year. According to its leader, Dr Herman Musahara, who heads the NUR's Faculty of Economics, the riparian people need to be sensitive on environmental issues with the river Nile.
"You will be told that there used to be a river here if you don't do anything!" he told participants, adding that the outcome of their research is needed for use by everyone.
About US$70,000 is to be used by the cluster in six months to identify environmental threats in its four-member riparian countries. The grant will fund all researchers and other members of the civil society who will submit their projects to the cluster.
Many researchers with the NBI are convinced that their work can influence political and social decisions among riparian countries towards sharing the River Nile resources and protect its environment.
"The research output at the end of the day will become a solution in riparian countries to have a healthy climate," said Dr Mulugeta Feseha from the Institute of Development Research of the Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
Michel Ngomambungu, who represented DRC in the workshop, insisted that if all of these resources are well managed and shared, every riparian country will benefit.
According to Dr Abdelaziz Ibrahim from Cairo's Institute of National Planning, Egypt is expecting a lot from researches targeted on how riparian peoples can increase what they benefit from River Nile's water.
"Egypt is nothing without River Nile. We don't have any rains, we don't have any watersheds in the country; we relay a lot on downstream countries like Rwanda, Burundi, and other countries," he said. "We, as Egyptians, have to help them invest in research in order to increase the yield coming from the river."
During the workshop, some possible research sub-themes were identified for further analysis at national level. Sustainable natural resource management for poverty reduction, environmental degradation, hydro-power and economic growth are among many other sub-themes that were identified.
The other four SDBS clusters are Energy, Food Security, Cross-border Trade and Benefit Sharing, headed by Tanzania, Kenya, Egypt and Ethiopia, respectively.
The World Bank-managed Nile Basin Trust allocated a whopping US$4.2 million to the SDBS project for its first phase's period of three years to conduct research in different countries among nine riparian countries.
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