Kenya will host this year’s annual Nile Council of Ministers meetings, comprising Ministers in charge of Water Affairs in the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) Member States, on November 29, 2019. High on the agenda is the launch of the USD 5.5 million Nile Basin Regional Hydro-Met project, aimed at establishing the first Regional Hydro-Met System for the Nile Basin. The latter will enable NBI Member States to share real time, reliable data for better monitoring of the shared Nile Basin water resources as well as informed planning and evidence-based decision making.

The project is expected to deliver a number of benefits, which are trans-boundary in nature and contributing to socio-economic development in all the Member States. These include more optimal water utilisation for food, water and energy production, improved adaptation to climate change as well as improved cooperative drought and flood management. Ministers from Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda will also consider approval of the work plan and budget for the NBI Secretariat and the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Programme Coordination Unit (NELSAP-CU) for the financial year 2019/2020. During the meeting, Kenya will assume the position of chairman of the Nile-COM, succeeding Burundi. Accordingly, Burundi’s Minister of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, Hon. Dr. Déo-Guide Rurema will hand over to Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Hon. Simon Chelugui who will hold the position for the next one year. This is in keeping with the NBI tradition of rotating the position of chairperson among the Member States, for a one year term of office. The Nile Council of Ministers is the highest political and decision making body of the Nile Basin Initiative, an inter-governmental partnership established by the Nile Basin States in 1999, to foster cooperative management and development of the shared Nile Basin water resources for the benefit of Nile Basin citizens.