THE UNITED NATION EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURE ORGANIZATION (UNESCO) FRIEND/Nile (FN) UNESCO-Flanders Science Trust Fund Project Code: 513RAB2042 The Identification of Hydrological Unites in the Nile Basin Data Availability Prepared by: Eng. Ahmed Fahmy Water Resources Consultant July 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. ii LIST OF ACRONYMS ............................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES....................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... vii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...........................................................................................1 1- INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................2 1-1 General ................................................................................................................2 1-2 Objectives ............................................................................................................2 1-3 Deliverables.........................................................................................................3 1-4 Outlines ...............................................................................................................3 2- BASIN PHYSICAL FEATURES .............................................................................4 2-1 General ................................................................................................................4 2-2 Hydrology of the Nile..........................................................................................4 2.2.1 Equatorial Lakes Basin .................................................................................5 2.2.2 The SUDD Basin and the White Nile...........................................................6 2.2.3 The Ethiopian Plateau Basin.........................................................................7 2.2.4 The Main Nile Basin.....................................................................................7 2-3 Climatic Regions and Precipitation .....................................................................8 2-4 Evaporation .......................................................................................................12 2-5 Sedimentation ....................................................................................................16 3- DATA AVAILABILITY IN THE NILE BASIN ...................................................18 3-1 Hydrological Units ............................................................................................18 3-1-1 Data Type ...................................................................................................18 3-1-2 Data Sources ..............................................................................................19 3-2 The Equatorial Lakes Basin ..............................................................................20 3-2-1 Lake Victoria..............................................................................................21 3-2-2 Lake Kyoga ................................................................................................27 3-2-3 Lake Albert: .............................................................................................30 3-2-4 River Similiki Catchment...........................................................................32 3-2-5 Albert Nile: ................................................................................................34 3-3 Bahr El Jebel & Zeraf Basin..............................................................................37 3-4 Bahr El Gazal Basin. ........................................................................................39 3-5 White Nile: ........................................................................................................41 ii 3-6 Ethiopian Plateau:..............................................................................................42 3-6-1 River Sobat:................................................................................................42 3-6-2 Blue Nile: ...................................................................................................46 3-6-3 River Atbara:..............................................................................................47 3-7 Main Nile...........................................................................................................48 4- IMPLEMENTED PROJECTS WITHIN THE NILE BASIN.................................53 4-1 HYRDOMET ....................................................................................................53 4-2 TECCONILE.....................................................................................................53 4-3 Nile Basin Initiative...........................................................................................54 NBI Objectives:....................................................................................................54 NBI Strategic Action Program: ...........................................................................55 4-3-1 Shared Vision Program (SVP): ..................................................................55 4-3-2 Subsidiary Action Programs (SAPs) :........................................................55 4-3-3 Moving Towards Implementation..............................................................58 4-4 LVEMP .............................................................................................................58 4-5 FAO/Water Resources Project ..........................................................................61 4-6 NBCBN-RE.......................................................................................................64 5- RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES ............................................................................67 5-1 General ..............................................................................................................67 5-1-1 Nile Basin Challenges ................................................................................67 5-1-2 Nile Basin Opportunities............................................................................67 5-2 Proposed Research Opportunities .....................................................................68 6- CONCLUSIONS .....................................................................................................69 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................72 ANNEX A .....................................................................................................................A-1 1 ANNEX B......................................................................................................................B-1 1 ANNEX C......................................................................................................................C-1 1 ANNEX D .....................................................................................................................D-1 1 iii LIST OF ACRONYMS AHD Aswan High Dam BCM Billion Cubic Meter CIDA Canadian International Development Agency COM Council of Ministers DST Decision Support Tool EH Eco-Hydrology EN Eastern Nile ENSAPT Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Program ENTRO Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office ESTM Erosion and Sediment Transport Modeling FAO Food and Agriculture Organization FN Friend/Nile Projects GEF Global Environmental Facility HM Hydrologic Modeling HRI Hydraulic Research Institute HYDROMET Hydro-Meteorological Survey of The Catchments of Lakes Victoria, Kyoga, and Albert ICCON International Consortium for the Cooperation on the Nile ICT Information and Communication Technology IDEN Integrated Development of Eastern Nile Projects IWRM Integrated Water Resources Management LVEMP Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project MCM Million cubic meter MWRI Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation NBCBN-RE Nile Basin Capacity Building Network for River Engineering NBI Nile Basin Initiative NEL Nile of Equatorial Lakes NRBAP Nile River Basin Action Plan NWRC National Water Resources Center, MWRI NWS Nile Water Sector PID Project Identification Document PMU Project Management Uint ppm Part per million iv SAP Subsidiary Action Program SVP Shared Vision Program TECCONILE Technical Co-operation for the Promotion of the Development and Environmental Protection of the Nile Basin TAC Technical Advisory Committee UN United Nation UNDP United Nation Development Prpgram UNESCO United Nation Educational. Scientific, and Culture Organization UNOPS United Nation of Project Services WMO World Metrological Organization v LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1. Normal evaporation over open water in the Nile Basin, in 13 mm/day. Table 2.2. shows total suspended Solids in the Nile Water (Hurst, 1955) 17 Table 3.1 Normal Discharge for River Kagera in mm 23 Table 3.2 Bar chart for Lake Victoria Discharge Sub-Catchment 23 Table 3.3 Normal Discharge for Lake Victoria Sub-Catchment 23 Table 3.4 Bar chart for Lake Victoria Gauge Sub -Catchment 24 Table 3.5 Max.-Mean-Min. gauge Reading for Lake Victoria Sub- 24 Catchments Table 3.6 Number of Rainfall Gauges in Sub Catchments of L. 26 Victoria Table 3.7 Bar chart for Lake Kyoga Discharge Gauge Sub