Design and Implementation

The critical gap in hydrometeorological data and information in the Nile Basin was recognized during the preparation of the first set of cooperative projects in the Nile Basin. These projects included the first international technical cooperation (1967-1992) which involved the Hydro meteorological Surveys of the Upper Nile (Equatorial Lakes) Catchments (HYDROMET Project) and the Technical Cooperation Committee for the Promotion of the Development and Environmental Protection of the Nile (TECCONILE Project:1993-1999). These projects and others led to the establishment of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) launched on 22 February 1999 as an all-inclusive platform for the Nile cooperation in the planning and management of the shared resources.

As a result of data and information gaps and needs, NBI developed the Nile River Basin Monitoring Strategy 2010 to guide its activities for enhancing the monitoring system in the Nile Basin. The strategy was endorsed by the NBI governance as the guiding document for the design of the regional monitoring network and system. The primary objective of the strategy is to have a comprehensive suite of river basin monitoring programs that supports decision makers, professionals and other stakeholders in the development, management, and protection of the shared Nile water resources to achieve the Shared Vision of the Nile Basin Countries. The NBI basin-wide Monitoring Strategy is to provide the data and information required to facilitate the implementation of the various projects and programs of the Nile Basin Initiative.

In the initial design, hydrometric stations were identified in 2015 to comprise the regional hydromet network and carefully selected to address 12 specific water resources management issues and to support four specific management dimensions for each issue. These identified and agreed issues were;

Improved Water Resource Planning & Management
Flood Forecasting and Management for enhanced preparedness and disaster risks reduction
Rainfed and irrigated agricultural management
Drought management
Soil erosion and sediment transport
Surface water quality
Groundwater management
Hydropower Generation and Station Operations
Transport and Navigation
Fisheries
Watershed management
Climate change and adaptation

To operationalize the basin wide monitoring strategy, NBI collaborated with Member States to designed and reviewed the regional hydro-meteorological monitoring system covering all the 10 Member States (2015). The design and implementation plan was developed and approved by the Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-COM) in its 23rd meeting on 4th June 2015, in Dodoma, Tanzania. The design of the stations comprise the regional hydromet network that was carefully selected based on identified strategic objectives, regional significance and practical considerations of the identified data and information gaps and issues in combination with extensive national and regional consultations.

Based on the Nile-COM approved design and implementation plan the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and European Union (EU) allocated funds through GIZ for implementation of phase I of the project to support transboundary water cooperation in the Nile Basin. The first phase of the project focused on the re-design, rehabilitation and upgrade of the national hydrological monitoring stations that are part of the regional hydrological system up to the regional standard, the upgrade of national and regional data centers and development of information products based on shared information from the system.

Therefore, NBI collaborated with the Member States to establish a comprehensive suite of regional hydrological monitoring system that collects, transmit and manage real-time river flow, lake levels and water quality information to the national and regional data centres via dual transmission with GSM module and satellite technologies using Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) . The implementation followed detailed needs assessment of the stations in the network covering over 80 hydrological monitoring stations with country national teams culminating to “Nile Basin Regional Hydrological Monitoring Design” (2020). The required civil work, equipment procurement and bench testing were undertaken for 60 hydromet stations complete with Data Management System (DMS) in the basin. The DMS was designed and configured with data collection and transmission deployed using dual telemetry systems involving both GSM Sim module and satellite telemetry that leverage on EUMETSAT communications services to provide robust telemetry using low profile, low power antennas and transmitters for the collected and transmitted to National and Regional Data Centres. The Data storage and archiving is achieved through DataSight with each country provided with unique access credentials to access and manage their own data and reports.