ENTEBBE, Uganda: The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) launched on Monday the first-ever State of the River Nile Basin Report at Lake Victoria Serena Resort in Kampala. The 2012 Report was officially launched by the Director of Water Resource Management in Uganda's Ministry of Water and Environment Mugisha Shillingi on behalf of the Minister of State for Water, Betty Bigombe. In a speech read by Shillingi, Bigombe noted that protecting the Nile is not possible in the absence of empirical data to inform choices of management interventions. The Minister applauded the NBI for publishing the Report that aims to inform and empower basin communities to exercise better stewardship of the common Nile Basin water resources. The primary purpose of the Report is to support informed and evidence-based decision-making in the management and development of the Basin. Through presentation of factual information and expert analyses, the report is expected to inform, educate and empower basin communities to exercise better stewardship of the common Nile Basin water and environmental resources. The 256-page Report targets policy makers, senior government officials, academicians and the general public and is expected to generate discussion on broad basin issues and trigger common policy interventions to address highlighted challenges as well as the steps being taken by the Nile riparian countries to address these challenges. Through provision of this common planning tool to be published every three years, the NBI is continuing in its efforts to build trust and confidence among Nile riparian countries and to nurture a conducive environment for cooperative management and development of the common Nile Basin water and environmental resources. The State of the River Nile Basin Report 2012 was prepared by NBI staff with major funding from the German government through GIZ. The launch ceremony was witnessed by members of the Nile Technical Advisory Committee (Nile-TAC) representing the ten NBI Member States (Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda as well as NBI Development Partners, representatives of the Nile Basin Discourse as well as staff of NBI.
