Congratulations to H.E. Mrs. Coletha Ruhamya, Minister of State in Charge of Water, Rwanda

The Nile Basin Capacity Building Network (NBCBN) would like with great pleasure to congratulate her Excellency Mrs. Coletha Ruhamya, Minister of State in Charge of Water, Rwanda, for being honored recently by this post in the Rwandan government. Since the launch event of NBCBN Rwanda Node in 2006 Mrs. Coletha joined the network  research activities on both local and regional levels being a member of Rwanda node local action research group and also a member of the integrated research group hosted by Uganda node.

Recently in December 2009 NBCBN organized its sub-regional workshop including participants from Rwanda, Burundi, and D.R. Congo and we had the pleasure that Mrs. Coletha joined the workshop with the group participating from Rwanda. NBCBN has the pleasure that one of Rwanda node members is promoted to this high level of responsibility, NBCBN and management team look forward to her support and encouragement for the proposed future joint sub-regional capacity building activities  that were recommended during this important workshop. Our best and Sincere wishes for H.E.

TIGER II Meeting, ITC, The Netherlands, December 2009

The second implementation period, 2009-2011 (TIGER II), was officially launched at a special side event organised by ESA, AMCOW and the AWF at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul on 17 March 2009. As part of the initiative, a call for the second phase of the TIGER Capacity Building Facility was awarded in July 2009 to a consortium led by ITC. The second phase of the TIGER Capacity Building Facility (TCBF II) supports mainly the water management research component, where 20 project proposals submitted by African institutes have been selected for implementation in the coming three years. These institutes are supported with datasets from ESA and with technical support from the TBCF. The facility is run by four European institutes: ITC (lead), Delft University of Technology, ISEGIUNL and VITO. These four institutes provide supervision and organise training programmes tailored to the needs of the TIGER research projects. Three regional offices (at RCMRD (Kenya), AGHRYMET and the South African Water Research Commission) develop information services and provide specific support in their respective regions.

Based on this new call criteria, the (Hydrological and Environmental Aspects of Wetlands phase II) research Project under NBCBN-wetlands Research group was selected as one of the approved research topics to be supported for extended research objectives under the TIGER II.
In December 2009, a launch workshop for the TIGER II CB Initiative was organized at ITC Enschede, the Netherlands, where Eng. Amel M. Azab the research project Leader presented the New research phase objectives and extended activities of the wetlands project.

During the launch workshop the CB plan for the new developed proposal was discussed and the overall work plan under the TIGER II was highlighted for further development.
The New TIGER initiative will support the selected research projects to develop and implement capacity building plans for the project teams in addition to the technical and scientific support through joint research supervision and access to ESA EO data that will be needed for implementing the research objectives.

Training Workshop on Integrated Flood Management for the Nile Basin Countries 23-27 November Nairobi, Kenya

Recognizing the importance of IFM and the urgent need to be applied in all the Nile Basin countries, and based on a meeting between NBCBN representatives and WMO representatives in Geneva to discuss the idea of organizing a joint training workshop on the Integrated Flood Management, NBCBN in collaboration with WMO organized a regional training Workshop on Integrated flood management (IFM) for the Nile Basin Countries in the period from 23 to 27th November 2009 Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop was held in IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) WMO partner in Kenya. Participants from the ten Nile Basin Countries attended this training workshop.

The first two days of the workshop aimed to disseminate the ideas and concepts of IFM, while the last three days of the workshop were dedicated for training of trainers sessions on IFM though discussion groups on different aspects of IFM.
The main workshop objective was to share, exchange and disseminate the ideas and concepts of the IFM application in the Nile Basin, while the specific objectives are:

• To provide participants with a balanced outlook on floods, flood plains and the development process, and the role they play in the overall framework of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).
• To provide the participant with an opportunity to think out of the box about possible ways of addressing the issue of floods within their own context.
• To provide the participants with an opportunity to share their conceptions and ideas with water/disaster managers from other countries.
• To provide a sufficient basis for future self-study on the issue and for an exchange network with other participants.

• To equip participants with an analytical framework to allow them to analyze the various dimensions of flood management and to identify the multidisciplinary input require ments for IFM.
• To equip participants with knowledge about available tools and methodologies to improve their flood management practices in their home institution.

As the selected participants will have the responsibility to disseminate the ideas, concepts and information about IFM in their home countries, the workshop targeted participants with professional background and experiences in the field of flood management and those how have capacity building responsibilities in their home countries. The selected participants represented different institutions universities, research institutions and ministries to formulate a multi-disciplinary forum to enrich the discussion between trainers and participants.

A main conclusion from this workshop was that there is a lot of interest in IFM topic as it is being used as a policy framework in different countries. Also capacity building activities is needed in this topic such as training, research and knowledge dissemination activities. It is also concluded from this experience that this (ToT) activity allowed experts from various sectors in the Nile Basin countries to understand the driving forces that are necessary for an integrated approach for Flood Management.

It was recommended as a follow-up action from this workshop to continue such training workshops on both the regional and local levels. It was also recommended that NBCBN will start to develop an Integrated Flood Management regional network starting with focal persons form each country, and to connect water professionals working on flood management, stockholders and decision makers to this network.

The workshop was highly appreciated by workshop participants, and it was recommended to continue such workshops on regional and local levels. It was also recommended that NBCBN start to develop an Integrated Flood Management network to connect water professionals working flood management, stockholders and decision makers.

Regional Workshop on Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing in Water Resources Environmental Management 1-3 December, 2009 Kigali, Rwanda

NBCBN-SEC organized in collaboration with the Water Resources and Environmental Management (WREM) Project of UNESCO-IHE hosted by the National University of Rwanda (NUR) a regional workshop on Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing in Water Resources & Environmental Management for the three countries: Rwanda, Burundi and D.R. Congo in the period from 1-3 December 2009, Kigali, Rwanda. The main idea of this workshop was to assist the researchers and professionals from those countries to share their knowledge and to develop collaborative regional training and research activities.

For NBCBN, the main objective of this joint regional workshop is to have a common platform for the three countries to discuss their common research interests, and to initiate ideas for Sub-regional capacity building and cooperation activities. Another important objective is to share and exchange knowledge and experiences with the WREM alumni group. For WREM the main idea of co-organizing this workshop is to mark the conclusion of a 4 years project to develop and implement an MSc course in Water Resources and Environmental Management at the National University of Rwanda. The workshop was a discussion platform for all alumni graduated through this MSc program. The main workshop topics were:

• Small hydropower Development
• Flood, erosion and sedimentation
• Environmental aspects of Water Related Projects

These topics were selected based on the main interest of the network nodes members in these countries and being the main important and common problems that needs more focus and support.

As a conclusion, the workshop and its outcomes were highly appreciated by the participants. The idea to gather these three countries and to initiate the idea of the sub-regional cooperation for the common problems was very successful.

It was recognized that the participants have the wellness for this regional cooperation in order to exchange and gain more information to build their capacities, and to contributes in solving the problems facing their countries.

A remarkable input in this event was the important role of the selected regional facilitators and key note speakers who were selected from the NBCBN regional expert members of the network. Their contribution was an added value for the workshop success.

The main output of this event was the development of ideas for sub regional collaboration on the three main thematic topics of the workshop. The following activities and actions are suggested to contribute in overcoming the existing problems, gaps and barriers facing the research and training needs in these countries. Therefore it was recommended to assist these countries in the following:

• Capacity building activities on local and regional levels including training of trainers, education using the WREM model and Regional joint research.
• Data Exchange
• Coordination and collaboration to establish Public Private Partnerships (PPP's)
• Country-wide planning of the water resources development

Launching the Adaptation to Climate Change Impacts on the Nile River Basin
(ACCION) Project, UNESCO-IHE(ACCION) Project, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, The Netherlands, October 2009

The awareness and the need of the adaptive strategy for water resources management make it necessary and viable to build a consistent common framework to account for climate change in water policy, in particular for developing regions that are at higher risk when exposed to these changes. Therefore, the ACCION project aim at developing a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) framework encompassing best practice, uncertainty analysis tools and supportive modelling facilities.

Furthermore, the project also endeavors to look into the current practice of water resources management and ecosystem services in the region, in order to provide the adaptive measures to the relative authority with the tools and methods developed in the project able to bridging the scientific findings with the routine management practice. Therefore, the project is able to empower the local community in the Nile Basin to mitigate the climate change impacts with the plan and practice in water resources management adapted to the climate change impacts.

The project will also link to and utilize findings from a number of on-going projects in the related research theme but funded by other agencies in the region such as the Nile Basin Capacity Building Network, FRIEND/Nile project, the ECOLIVE project, the FP7 WETwin project. The research will be conducted by 5 funded post-doctoral fellows for 1.5 years. Five sub-basins across the Upper/Whilte Nile (Kenya/Tanzania/Rwanda/Burundi /Uganda) and the Blue Nile (Ethiopia/Sudan) are selected to represent the diverse climatological, ecological and socio-economical environments of the Nile Basin. The project was launched in October 2009, UNSECO-IHE delft, where it was agreed that NBCBN will organize a closing workshop for this project to disseminate its outputs.

Overview on NBCBN Research Activities

Flood Management Research Cluster :Catchments characteristics for flood and drought management Research Group

Floods are the most common and widespread of all natural disasters except fire. Floods can be slow or fast rising but generally develop over a period of days. Floods have caused a greater loss of life and property, and have disrupted more families and communities in the world than all other natural hazards combined. Property damage from flooding totals billions each year in the world.

There is a history of flooding of rivers in Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda, particularly rivers located in the Nile Basin. There hardly passes a rainy season without flooding events in the floodplains of rivers such as Nzoia, Nyando, Simiyu, Lake Kyoga, Awash, Dandir and Nyabarongo.

Therefore this research group has chosen the flood and catchments management as a research topic due to the importance for the whole region. This is one of two research groups working under the Flood management Cluster hosted by Nairobi University, Kenya. The group is coordinated by Dr.Okelloh Benjamin Ndwallah and the scientific advisor is Dr. Werner Micha, m.werner@unesco-ihe.org , Dr. Lindsay Beevers, l.beevers@unesco-ihe.org while the group composition is as follow

1. Maurice o. Nyadawa,kenya,mnyadawa@yahoo.com
2. Okelloh benjamin ndwallah,kenya-group coordinator,okelloh@gmail.com
3. Francis karanja kigira,kenya,fkigira2004@yahoo.com
4. Mr. Simon mutie, kenya,smutie@westernkenya.go.ke
5. Deogratias m. M. Mulungu,tanzania,dmulungu@udsm.ac.tz
6. Prof. Patts odira, kenya,pmodira@uonbi.ac.ke

Within the Lake Victoria basin, four sub-basins are identified as research basins based on the frequency and magnitude of flood damage experienced over the years. These are the Nzoia and Nyando River Basin in Kenya, Simiyu River Basin in Tanzania, Nyabarongo River Basin in Rwanda, Kyoga River Basin in Uganda, Awash River in Ethiopia, Dandir in Sudan and the Toshka Spillway in Egypt.

The overall objective of the second project phase is to build individual and institutional capacity on water resources management and flood disaster management amongst member countries of the Nile Basin. Specific objectives are:

• Documention of catchment characteristics of selected flood prone basins within the Nile Basin, in this case Kagera and Nzoia basins
  
• Development of flood hazard maps for various flood prone areas in the research basins
• Identification of flood and drought mitigation structures and measures by assessing and re-evaluating the efficiency of existing and previously proposed measures and designing site specific structures and measures necessary for flood and drought mitigation
• Development of catchment Management Strategies

The expected outputs are:

• River sub basin (Nzoia, and Nyabarongo) database on river basin characteristics capturing soils, land cover and drainage patterns.
• Historical trends, physical and climatological change characterization within the basins.
• Development of flood hazard and inundation maps.
• Existing land and floodwater use practices: review of existing land and floodwater use practices and effective flood plain management.

So far the group has achieved the following item for the two basins:

NZOIA BASIN

• General background description of the study area – geographic and climatic
• Thematic analysis – Targeting model input (DEM, soils and land use)
• Socio – economic analysis

KAGERA BASIN

• General background description of the study area – geographic and climatic
• Thematic analysis– Targeting model inputs (DEM, soils and land use)
• Socio – economic analysis

Character from NBCBN

Name              : Mohamed El-muntasir Ibrahim Ahmed
Nationality       : Sudanese
Position           : Environmental Management Specialist
Organization    : Nile Basin Initiative- Ethiopia
Country Node  : Sudan

Dr. Elmuntasir joined NBCBN since the launch of the River Morphology research Cluster in September 2002. He is one of the most active members in NBCBN. He joined Eastern Nile Technical Regional office (ENTRO) under (NBI) since 2008. For his active participation & experience in the field of Environmental Management, he was selected as a key person and main facilitator in the area of Environmental Aspects of Water related Projects in NBCBN Joint workshop (Rwanda , Burundi and D.R.Congo) which was held in Kigali,December,2009. NBCBN-SEC wishes to Dr. Elmuntasir and all Sudan node researchers all the best in accomplishing their research activities.

For More Information on NBCBN Members please visit

http://km.nbcbn.com/