Baseline database on hydrology and water use and related report in the Blue Nile upstream of GERD. (EIWR - University of Addis Ababa)

Blue Nile River is the main source of the water for hundreds of millions of people in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt in the Nile River basin with a drainage area of 324,530 km2 (Peggy and Curtis, 1994). The Upper Blue basin is 176,000 km2 in area (Conway, 2000) and it is the largest of Ethiopian basins in terms of volume of discharge. The primary tributaries in Ethiopia are the Besheilo, Welaka, Jemma, Muger, Guder, Finchaa, Anger, Didessa and Dabus on the left bank and the North Gojam, South Gojam, Wombera and Beles on the right bank (McCartney and Girma, 2012). The topography is dominated by an altitude ranging from 485 meters to more than 4257 meters.