The Nile River Basin’s rich ecological resources are vital to the 238 million people living in the region. The basin’s natural environment is the ultimate source of its economic activities (production and consumption) and the sink for disposing of all its waste. At the same time, the Nile Basin’s human resources are also crucial assets, providing the labour and markets for goods that drive the regional economy. This report illustrates these links between people, the economy and the environment. For example, we learn that the Nile Delta and the wider Mediterranean coast account for 30-40 per cent of Egypt’s agricultural production and more than half of its tourism and industrial base. Water is central to all these activities
and processes and must be available in sufficient quantities to meet environmental, consumption and social needs.
Climate change is a reality, however, and the people and environments of the Nile Basin are already feeling its impacts. Its
major effect is on water availability in the region, as is abundantly evident from this Vulnerability Assessment.