NBI-LVBC Technical Team meeting November, 17th 2020 Entebbe, Uganda
For two days experts of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) met on 17th November 2020 at the NBI offices in Entebbe, to discuss joint use of, and development of the Nile Basin Decision Support System (NB DSS).
The NB DSS is a computer-based platform for communication, information management and analysis of water resources. It is also useful for sharing knowledge, evaluating alternative development and management strategies, and supporting informed decision making by NBI and LVBC.
While the LVBC is to develop a Lake Victoria Basin Water Information System (LVB-WIS) to support its role as IWRM Centre of Excellence for the basin, the NBI DSS already has much of the required functionalities.
As sister organizations in two critical basins—Nile Basin and Lake Victoria Basin — LVBC and NBI have shared skills, knowledge and support systems in the past for maximizing mutually benefiting development interests.
The meeting of experts is a follow-up of the bilateral discussions held on 23 October 2020 between the Executive Secretary of LVBC Dr. Ally Said Matano, and the Executive Director of the NBI, Professor Seifeldin Hamad Adballa, during which they agreed to deepen cooperation between the two basin organizations in the Nile Basin.
The main conclusion of the expert meeting was that collaboration on the use of the NB DSS is very beneficial to both NBI and LVBC. The preliminary findings show that most of the required and desired functionality of the LVB-WIS is already available or will soon become available in the NB DSS.
The meeting was held in a cordial and cooperative mood, where it was clear from the beginning that working together by multi-disciplinary technical teams of the two basin organizations a necessary step towards addressing development issues and effective realization of the objectives of the meeting that brought together experts from NBI and LVBC. The October meeting at executive level paved the ground for seamless discussions between experts of the two organizations.
While there are still remaining discussion points that will require the decisions of the respective governing bodies of NBI and LVBC, according to experts, the benefits of joining forces are clear and the development challenges in the two Basins are not insurmountable.
The implementation of the LVB-WIS is part of the Lake Victoria Basin Integrated Water Resources Management Programme, which is supported by European Union and German Government.
