Countries urged to scale热血传奇1.76sf up investment projects al

KIGALI, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Water resource experts on Wednesday called on Nile Basin countries to increase investment projects along the Nile waters for sustainable social and economic development.

They were speaking at the 5th Nile Basin Development Forum in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

The theme of the meeting, which started on Monday, was "Investing in Nile Cooperation for a Water Secure Future."

During the three-day forum, experts and policy makers presented research papers and discussed such topics as climate change, investments, sustaining water ecosystems, ensuring water availability and governance in the Nile Basin.

"When governments in the Nile Basin talk about benefits accruing from Nile waters, they should consider increasing investment projects like energy, agriculture and fisheries, tourism and culture along the Nile waters," said Abdulkarim H. Seid, head of Water Resources Management Department at Nile Basin Initiative, an intergovernmental partnership of 10 Nile Basin countries.

"These investments would create jobs, raise people's incomes and contribute to social and economic growth," he said.

The forum attracted more than 500 participants including ministers in charge of water affairs and other government officials in Nile Basin countries, members of parliament, water resource managers, environmentalists, economists, development planners, and researchers.

Don Blackmore, former executive director of the Murray-Darling River Basin Authority in Australia, said the waters of the Nile River are a vital economic lifeline for millions of people living in the basin.

"The Nile waters bear great potential for social and economic development, but at the moment, the inability to explore investment opportunities along the Nile River due to disagreements on equitable sharing of benefits presents a huge livelihood challenge to surrounding communities," he said.

According to the United Nations, the population of the Nile Basin countries increased from around 100 million to more than 400 million from 1960 to 2010.