GEOGRAPHY

If the Nile, this longest river in Africa with its 6671 km, has been known for a long time, its source has remained enigmatic. Until the 15th century, under the influence of Ptolemy, Greek geographer of the 2nd century, everyone thought that this source was in large snowy mountains close to the equator and that the snow while melting fed the lakes located more in the north, from which came two streams whose union formed the Nile.

It was not until the 19th century that the English embarked on difficult expeditions to unravel the mystery of the sources of the Nile. The Royal Geographical Society had funded several expeditions from Zanzibar. In 1858, after 6 months of exploration, Richard Burton and John Speke discovered Lake Tanganyika. Speke later discovered another even larger lake, which he named Lake Victoria in honor of the Queen of England, and believed he had found the source of the Nile.

In 1860 Samuel Baker and his wife Florence discovered a river connecting Lake Victoria to Lake Albert and considered it to be the source of the Nile. Meanwhile, missionary and explorer David Livingstone claimed that Lake Tanganyika was one of the sources of the Nile. It was in 1934 that the explorer Burckhart Waldecker discovered, in Burundi, in the commune of Rutovu (Bururi province), the southernmost source.

It is a trickle of water coming out of the northern flank of Mount Gikizi in the commune of Rutovu in Burundi. It continues its course by the Gasenyi, Kigira rivers, tributaries of the Ruvyironza. The latter in turn flows into the Ruvubu whose waters join the Nyabarongo to form the Kagera, the main tributary of Lake Victoria. The waters of Lake Victoria exit through Jinja and constitute the White Nile. Waters from Ethiopia arrive in Karthoum via the Blue Nile. From this city, the Nile is made up of a single stream and crosses Sudan and Egypt before emptying into the Mediterranean Sea.

Since 1999, there has been an intergovernmental institution called the Nile Basin Initiative created to serve as a forum for consultation and coordination between basin states for the sustainable management and development of shared waters and related resources advantageous for the 9 states of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. In 2000, these countries adopted a Common Vision document with the objective of “achieving sustainable socio-economic development through equitable use and the benefit of all of the common resources of the waters of the Nile basin”. Common Vision Projects (PVC) are made up of activities aimed at promoting trust and cooperation and creating an environment that facilitates investment.