DHI and Nile Basin Initiative strengthen cooperation on sustainable water management

The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and DHI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build on their long-standing collaboration in advancing sustainable, science-based management of the Nile’s shared water resources.

The agreement was signed by Dr Florence Grace Adongo, Executive Director of the Nile Basin Initiative Secretariat, and Mette Vestergaard, CEO of DHI, during World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.

Established in 1999, the NBI is the only all-inclusive, basin-wide platform for dialogue, knowledge-sharing and joint action among its ten member states. It plays a critical role in balancing national development needs with basin-wide sustainability and in enabling transparent, evidence-based decision-making. In a region where the river is central to the livelihoods of over 250 million people, the NBI’s work helps to reduce political tensions, identify cooperative investments and ensure that the Nile’s resources are managed for the benefit of all Nile Basin countries.

NBI’s Executive Director, Dr Florence Grace Adongo said, ’In these final few years of our 10-year strategy, strengthening our partnerships for the people of the Nile Basin has become ever more urgent. Today marks an important milestone. By formalising our collaboration with DHI, we commit to jointly developing the next generation of the Nile Basin Decision Support System — 2.0 — and aligning it with other key tools, including NBI’s flood forecasting system, drought early warning systems and digital innovations for managing the Nile’s water and ecosystem.’

DHI and NBI have previously collaborated on the Nile Basin Decision Support System (NB-DSS), a shared planning tool that integrates data, models and analysis to support cooperative decision-making. Looking ahead, they share the ambition of further enhancing such tools to meet evolving needs for basin-wide planning, climate resilience and sustainable water use.

Over the years, the collaboration has also included basin-wide flood and drought forecasting systems, flash flood assessment in the Nile Equatorial Lakes region, hydropower optimisation studies and flood risk mapping in the Eastern Nile. These initiatives have complemented the development and maintenance of the NB-DSS, ensuring that decision-makers across the Basin have access to reliable data and scenario analysis tools for planning and cooperation.

The MoU builds on more than a decade of cooperation between NBI, DHI and the UNEP-DHI Centre on Water and Environment. The agreement outlines areas where the partners aim to work together to strengthen transboundary water cooperation across the Basin’s member states. These include:

• Building technical capacity – supporting knowledge-sharing and training in science-based decision-making and collaborating with universities in the Basin to apply research in practice.
• Enabling data and knowledge exchange – promoting dialogue among stakeholders, including through NBI events such as the Nile Basin Development Forum and Nile Day.
• Supporting investment planning – undertaking environmental impact assessments and feasibility studies for member state projects.

By formalising their cooperation, NBI and DHI aim to leverage their combined technical expertise, digital tools and networks to deliver practical solutions for sustainable water management in one of the world’s most complex and important river basins.

‘The Nile Basin Initiative plays a vital role in enabling countries to work together on the sustainable management of the Nile. DHI is pleased to continue our long-standing partnership, bringing science and technology to support cooperation and informed decision-making. Through this agreement, we look forward to exploring new opportunities with NBI to strengthen resilience and deliver benefits for communities and ecosystems across the Basin,’ states Mette Vestergaard, Chief Executive Officer at DHI.