Optimizing the Operation of a Multiple Reservoir System in the Eastern Nile Basin Considering Water and Sediment Fluxes

The Eastern Nile riparian countries Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are currently developing several reservoir projects to contribute to the needs for energy and food production in the region. The Nile Basin, particularly the Eastern Nile Sub-basin, is considered one of a few international river systems with potential conflicts between riparian countries. In the absence of formal mechanisms for collaboration, the transboundary nature of this basin makes sound water resources development challenging. The large seasonal and inter-annual variability of the river flow exacerbates those challenges. A further complication is the high sediment load in the Eastern Nile rivers during the high flow season.

This study contributes to fill relevant knowledge gaps through a better understanding of the methods needed for a complex system of multipurpose reservoirs, considering both water quantity and sediment load. The study quantifies the impacts of water resources development in the Eastern Nile basin and identifies system management options at both regional and country level. Developing a collaborative and unified perspective of the countries towards new projects can be beneficial for all. New operation rules are proposed for improving operation of the current system when new infrastructures are developed and operated either unilaterally or, ideally, cooperatively.

Eng. Reem Fikri Mohamed Osman Digna is a lecturer of water resource engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Khartoum (UofK). Her research work focuses on mathematical models for decision making in support of water resources planning and management, urban flood analysis, and water distribution systems simulation and optimization.
Reem graduated from Civil Engineering with First Class Honor from UofK in 2002. She worked as teaching assistant at the same university, conducting tutorials and organizing laboratory work. Following her MSc degree in water resources engineering from the University of Khartoum in 2008, she was appointed lecturer, teaching undergraduate courses of hydrology, fluid mechanics, and hydraulics, and the graduate course of numerical methods and application in water resources modeling. She is a member of Water Research Center (WRC) at UofK, where she also is the focal person of the Nile Basin Decision Support System Stakeholders’ Community.
In 2012 Reem joined UNESCO-IHE (now IHE Delft) as PhD fellow with a research focused on optimizing the Eastern Nile multiple reservoir system. During her PhD, she participated in several international and regional conferences in Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Netherlands and Canada. She supervised BSc theses of two groups of female engineering students. She worked as coordinator (2013) for the Water Resources and Environmental Engineering MSc program. She also published in national and international journals.