New Nile Perspectives - Scientific advances in the Eastern Nile Basin

Given developments in the Nile River basin, including the emergence of a new riparian State, the Ministry of Water Resources and Electricity, Sudan, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – Institute for Water Education (IHE), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and others, are convening participants to discuss water cooperation.

The conference will address, inter alia: new Nile projects and politics; new Nile hydrology, morphology and climate change; new Nile land and water use and livelihoods; new Nile economics and optimization; and new Nile futures – institutionalizing interdependencies.

A new Nile country, new dams and new initiatives for cooperation bring new Nile basin realities with new opportunities for its inhabitants. To what extent the people of the Eastern Nile basin can benefit from these developments depends on their understanding of Nile flows and cooperation over Nile water uses.

Researchers should and do play a pioneering role both in creating new understandings of Nile flows and in further improving cooperation over Nile waters through data and knowledge sharing. There are only few platforms which draw together Nile researchers from different disciplines, projects, universities and countries however. Therefore the Ministry of Water Resources and Electricity of Sudan together with UNESCO-IHE, IWMI, ENTRO, NBCBN, University of Khartoum, Addis Ababa University, Cairo University and University of Juba invite researchers to further cooperate and share new Nile knowledge at the New Nile Perspectives conference in Khartoum on 6-7 May 2013.

The objectives of the conference are to disseminate and discuss results of state of the art research on the Eastern Nile and to form new alliances for future Nile research around 5 themes: 

1. New Nile projects and politics
   conveners: Prof. Atta El-Battahani - University of Khartoum 
   Dr. Yacob Arsano - Addis Ababa University
2. New Nile hydrology, morphology and climate change
   conveners: Prof. Stefan Uhlenbrook - UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education
   Dr. Mohamed Abdel Aty - former Nile Water Sector, Egypt
   Dr. Yousif Ibrahim - ENTRO
3. New Nile land and water use and livelihoods 
   conveners: Dr. Simon Langan - International Water Management Institute 
   Prof. Masresha Fetene - Addis Ababa University
4. New Nile economics and optimization
   conveners: Prof. Yasir Mohamed - Hydraulics Research Center - Sudan 
   Dr. Samson S. Wassara - University of Juba
5. New Nile futures - institutionalizing interdependencies 
   conveners: Prof. Seifeldin Hamad Abdalla - Ministry of Water Resources and Electricity, Sudan 
   Prof. Pieter van der Zaag - UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education