NBI Environmental Flow Strategy

The Nile and its main tributaries flow through a large variety of ecosystems, each of great relevance for biodiversity conservation and human livelihoods, and providing important regional and local ecosystem services. The continued provision of these ecosystem services is heavily dependent on a minimum water flow, or environmental flows.

The BI supports its Member States in sustaining and enhancing Environmental Flows (or E-Flows) in the Nile Basin in a cooperative manner. Environmental Flows describe the quantity, quality and timing of water flows required to sustain freshwater and related ecosystems, as well as the human livelihoods and wellbeing that depend on these ecosystems. Environmental Flows are important for the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by the river, including provisioning (e.g. water as a basic human right, livelihood through fisheries), regulating (e.g. water quality and quantity), cultural and supporting services. To maintain these services, water needs to be allocated to sustain the functioning of the river ecosystem and avoid flow alterations where negative effects are foreseen.

NBI has developed a seven-phase Nile Basin Environmental Flows Framework to provide orientation for establishing and managing environmental flows in the basin It also collects and compiles best practice examples from within the region and around the world. and carries our environmental flow assessment, as a foundation for national and transboundary water allocation plans.