Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

The NBI Climate Change Strategy establishes a strategic implementation framework for the integration of climate change aspects in basin management with the overall goal of strengthening  basin-wide resilience to climate change and ensure climate compatible water resource management and development.

The NELSAP Guidelines for Adaptation Mainstreaming in Water Infrastructure Development provide guidance on mainstreaming climate adaptation in investment planning and projects concerning water resources management, with a view to reducing climate related risks in water resources investments.

This manual provides orientation for systematic climate proofing of infrastructure investments. Countries in the Nile Basin invest billions of dollars in durable water infrastructure such as dams, irrigation canals, wells, and others to provide services to people. Often, planners and policy makers do not take future climate change sufficiently into account when planning new infrastructure or rehabilitating an existing infrastructure project. This leads to high risks of insecure and volatile service provision and physical damage to costly investments, with potentially serious economic, political, and social consequences such as loss of livelihood and loss of lives. Building infrastructure today without considering future climate impacts is incorporating vulnerabilities that will later cause service disruptions and failures thus increasing costs to government, the private sector, and users.