Strategic Environmental Assessment as a tool to Develop Power in transboundary Water Basin Settings

This paper propose sageneric consultative process for under taking Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) in a trans boundary river basin context to bring up front environmental and social issues of major development programs into the transboundary planning, project development and investment finance processes. The paper demonstrates through an analysis of two case studies from the Nile Basin in East and North Africa how an SEA approach with a focus on hydropower development is a transparent pre-investment tool that allows for consensus building in support of trans boundary and regional strategic decision making and integration. Further, it demonstrates how an SEA can guide public and private sector investors seeking to develop the power sector in general and hydropower options in particular by allowing for a first level understanding of challenges and opportunities of power development and the development scenarios preferred by riparian governments

کلیدواژه ها:

Hydropower ، Indicative Power Development Plan ، Nile Basin Initiative ، Regional Integration ، Strategic Environmental Assessments ، Water Resources Development