A DSS was developed for the Nile Basin Initiative under the Water Resources Management Project based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (World Bank funded)

Rationale

The riparian countries of the Nile – Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda – have embarked on the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). The NBI (www.nilebasin.org) is governed by the Council of Ministers of Water Affairs of the Nile Basin States and seeks to develop the River Nile in a cooperative manner, sharing socioeconomic benefits and promoting regional peace and security. Their shared vision is to "achieve sustainable socioeconomic development through the equitable utilization of and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources." A Strategic Action Program (SAP) should translate this vision into concrete activities and projects. An important part of the shared vision is the establishment of shared and accepted water management tools and technologies. For this purpose the Nile Basin DSS was developed.

Description

The development of the Nile Basin DSS contains two separate work packages. Work package 1 is essentially an IT project focusing on the development of the Nile Basin DSS while Work package 2 is designed for independent system testing and pilot application. Key activities were elaboration of the Nile Basin DSS software requirements, software architecture and design, software development and testing, training of local staff and system deployment in the nine countries. The Nile Basin DSS software requirements are rooted in 'use cases' developed by the NBI and further elaborated during the course of the project. The Nile Basin DSS is designed to support water resources planning and investment decisions in the Nile Basin, especially those with cross-border or basin level ramifications. The system consists of an IMS linked with river basin modelling systems and a suite of analytical tools to support a multi-objective analysis of investment alternatives. The Nile Basin DSS will aid in the development of core national capabilities, in the evaluation of alternative development paths and in the identification of joint investment projects at sub-regional and regional levels. The NBI has established a small, strong project management unit (PMU) staffed by DSS specialists and IT and modelling experts. In addition, IT and water resources modelling experts from all nine countries have participated in all project phases, ranging from elaboration of requirements to system testing. Two interim Nile Basin DSS releases have been successfully deployed, tested and accepted by the NBI. The final Nile Basin DSS will have been deployed in all countries in September 2012. A service agreement is in place ensuring that the NBI will have access to support and software updates. The training and involvement of local staff have been key. At this stage, more than 50 Nile Basin water professionals have been trained by DHI. Moreover, the NBI PMU has invested substantial resources in involving additional engineers and managers through training sessions and workshops in the NBI countries. Through such training sessions, a very large number of local staff has been trained or exposed to the Nile Basin DSS even before its final release.

Lessons learned

• Substantial training and client involvement during the project has created a very strong feeling of ownership at the NBI
• Software requirements should be based on, or supported by, 'use cases' developed by the client. This process to ensure and demonstrate the ability of the system to address real-life problems and key issues in relation to client involvement and ownership is time consuming, but important
• To sustain and further enrich the Nile Basin DSS a post-project plan must be put in place, including staffing, institutional setup and funding.

Replicability

The NBI has chosen to base the Nile Basin DSS on DHI's MIKE customized software platform. The NBI has contributed significantly to the development of the platform. The software platform will now be maintained and further developed by DHI and will be used to serve many other systems throughout the world.