A meteorological-hydrological forecasting system for the Blue Nile

The Nile is the most important source of water in northeast Africa and thus forms the basis of life for around 400 million people. The largest tributary is the Blue Nile in Ethiopia and Sudan. To ensure sustainable transboundary water management in the region, the project developed a meteorological-hydrological forecasting system that could predict variables such as precipitation, inflow, sediment transport and agricultural yields, as well as the probability of extreme hydro-meteorological events. As part of a policy paper, adelphi and local project partners developed recommendations for water management of the Blue Nile reservoir lakes and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) with regard to the nexus of water, energy and food production.

adelphi accompanied the development and implementation of this "Seamless Prediction System" (SPS) in close cooperation with Sudanese and Ethiopian partners from science, politics and water management. In doing so, adelphi identified the needs of local partners regarding products and the communication of prediction results. adelphi also identified potential further users and multipliers for the SPS, including German development cooperation – for example in the context of the Nile Basin Initiative.