Eastern Nile Transboundary Watershed Management Programme

The project focuses on two major sub-basins of the Eastern Nile System (the Blue Nile and the Atbara/Tezeke sub-basins ) that have a combined area of 540,527 km². The rivers draining these sub-basins originate in the Ethiopian Highlands at elevations above 3900 m amsl, and flow nothwesterwards into the plains of Sudan (where elevants range from 450 to 350 m amsl), eventually empting into the White or Main Nile River. The long term mean annual contribution of the two subbasin to the flow of the Nile is 66 MCM (54 MCM from the Blue Nile and 12 MCM from the Atabara-Tekeze). The combination of steep slopes, high intensity rainfall and poor landuse pratices lead to massive amounts of soil erosion in the headwater regions of the two basins in Ethiopia, The sub-basins also contribute over 225 million tons of sediment per year to the Nile (140 million tons from the Blue Nile sub-basin, and 85 million tons from the Atbara/Tekeze Sub-basin).

The Transboundary Watershed Management Programme iThe identification and prefeasibility study for the Transboundary Environmental and Social Development and Management Programme was completed in 2015 with funding from the World Bank under the Nile Cooperation for Results Project

The project focuses on two major sub-basins of the Eastern Nile System – the Blue Nile and the Atbara/Tezeke sub-basins – that have a combined area of 540,527 km². The rivers draining these sub-basins originate in the Ethiopian Highlands at elevations above 3900 m amsl, and flow nothwesterwards into the plains of Sudan (where elevants range from 450 to 350 m amsl), eventually empting into the White or Main Nile River. The long term mean annual contribution of the two subbasin to the flow of the Nile is 66 MCM (54 MCM from the Blue Nile and 12 MCM from the Atabara-Tekeze). The combination of steep slopes, high intensity rainfall and poor landuse pratices lead to massive amounts of soil erosion in the headwater regions of the two basins in Ethiopia, The sub-basins also contribute over 225 million tons of sediment per year to the Nile (140 million tons from the Blue Nile sub-basin, and 85 million tons from the Atbara/Tekeze Sub-basin).

The Transboundary Watershed Management Programme iThe identification and prefeasibility study for the Transboundary Environmental and Social Development and Management Programme was completed in 2015 with funding from the World Bank under the Nile Cooperation for Results Project