The Nile River basin has very complex hydrology with high interconnection between floodplains, wetlands, swamps, lakes, highlands and the rivers drainage networks systems, some with strong seasonality and others with year-round consistent flows – call for an integrated approach.
The highlands subjects to soil erosion and land degradation, particularly the Eastern Nile system. The Ethiopian highlands generates huge volumes of sediment as compared to the other parts of the basin. Call for joint regional efforts by riparian countries on watershed management to improve land management practices, improve livelihood – to protect and restore degraded lands.
The selection of the stations presented in this chapter was solely based on availability of data of fairly good quality and longer record. Data scarcity and reliability has been a huge problem in hydrologic system, actual data is an indispensable in rivers basins. Efforts should be made to establish network of gauges and strengthen capacity for a better understating of the temporal, spatial characteristics and provide a better insight of the basin system.
The Nile basin has such a huge hydrological diversity. The basin, like any other part of the world experiences extreme events including droughts, floods, landslides, heat waves, etc. – efforts need to be exerted to improve on hydrologic modelling, climate change scenarios and forecasting.
Groundwater is widely used across the basin for domestic water supply (for drinking and other domestic uses) for both rural and urban communities. However, the basin ground water has not been adequately studied and so, information in this area is still scanty.