**2. Major lakes of the Nile basin**

**Figure 1.** The Nile River trajectory from source to outfall

350 Biodiversity - The Dynamic Balance of the Planet

The lengthy course of the Nile River is interrupted by several important lakes. Some of them are natural, while others were engineered by dam constructions and artificial reservoirs projects. Within the Nile basin, there are five major natural lakes with a surface area totaling more than 100,000 km2 (Victoria, Edward, Albert, Kyoga and Tana). These are vast areas of permanent wetlands and seasonal flooding (the Sudd, Bahr Al-Ghazal, and Machar marshes). There are also five major reservoir dams (Aswan High Dam, Roseires, Khasham El-Girba, Sennar and Jebel Aulia) in the basin. Before discharging its water into the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile fills four coastal lakes within its Delta (Lake Mariut, Lake Edku, Lake Burullus and Lake Manzala) with a total area of 1100 km2 [2].

The share of the Nile basin area for each of the ten countries hosting the river may represent a major or minor fraction of the total area of the country (Table 1). However, the economic significance of the basin may be quite disproportionate to its area, such as it is for Kenya and Tanzania [3].

Nile waters are the mainstay for freshwater supply for agriculture irrigation, navigation, water for human use ("drinking, industrial, domestic uses"), hydroelectric power generation, and of course for exploitation of natural fish stocks and aquaculture fish farming projects.
