Nile Basin

The Nile Basin, is an African hydrographic basin, which has its main flow of flow the Nile River, being the second largest basin in the continent, besides being effectively the most notable basin in Africa. It covers approximately 2,870,000 km²,[1] or about 10% of African territory, crossing arid regions and with a high population density. The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) has been in existence since 1999, with the aim of strengthening cooperation in sharing its resources concerned.[2]

The Nile basin.

The drainage area of the basin covers Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo-Kinshasa, Kenya, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Eritrea and Egypt, being the main supplier of fresh water, electricity and fish for the populations of these regions, supplying about 270 million inhabitants, or 20% of the African population. The basin rises in the highlands and flows in extremely arid regions, in particular the Sahara desert.[3]

Its main navigable course is through the Nile River, being the mouth section in the Mediterranean Sea (more precisely after the Nile delta) until it surrounds the city of Aswan, in southern Egypt. There are also navigable courses at the Aswan Dam. In the middle Nile, after the dam, due to the presence of waterfalls north of Khartoum (Sudan), the river is navigable in just three stretches. The first is from the Egyptian border to the southern tip of Lake Nasser. The second is the section between the third and fourth cataracts. The third and most important stretch extends from Khartoum, in the south, to Juba (South Sudan).[4]

The main water supplier for the basin is Lake Victoria, located in the Great Rift Valley.[4]

References
  1. The Nile basin. in.: Irrigation potential in Africa: A basin approach. Roma: Organização das Nações Unidas para Alimentação e Agricultura. 1997
  2. NBI Strategy. NBI. 2020
  3. The Nile River Basin - an introduction. Waternet. 2017.
  4. Nile river basin: Dams and reservoirs. Encypaedia Bittanica. 2020.
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