The Nile River, the world’s longest river, winds through 11 countries in Africa and is crucial to many of these nations’ economies, diplomacy and wellbeing. The river is also a world biodiversity hotspot and the backbone to many of Africa’s fragile ecosystems.
Today, it is under new and evolving threats: climate change, population and economic growth, transboundary hydropolitics, and the building of large-scale dams that threaten to reduce water availability for countries highly dependent on the Nile’s waters – just to name a few.
InfoNile is a cross-border group of geojournalists with a mission to uncover critical stories on water issues in the Nile River Basin through data-based multimedia storytelling.
We seek to bridge the gap between scientists and researchers, journalists, and the public, in order to increase mutual awareness of water issues of this ancient and significant river.
What Do We Do?
We provide story grants, training and mentorship to journalists across the Nile Basin to help them conduct in-depth stories on issues of water, environment, biodiversity and climate change. We highlight stories of solutions that are working to solve issues such as climate change and wildlife trafficking in local communities.
In partnership with Code for Africa, we train and mentor journalists in data journalism, visualization and geojournalism.
We produce original cross-border investigations, including on foreign land deals, wildlife trafficking and conservation, climate change, and the impact of large-scale dams; in such a way we promote collaboration across countries and new geo-storytelling techniques such as data-based maps, drone videos and satellite imagery.
We create interactive, actionable maps on issues of water and environment, and we “map” our stories onto these maps to provide a human layer to the data.
InfoNile is a part of Water Journalists Africa, the largest network of journalists reporting on water issues in the African continent.
We have received funding from various media development organizations, water research institutes, and other funders interested in environmental conservation. Interested to support under-covered environmental reporting? Please contact us at info@infonile.org.
You can share our interactive maps or embed one on your site. All data is open-source and available to download.
Our Impact (since 2017)
250+ journalists trained
in data and science journalism, through 3-9 month programs and workshops
400+ stories produced
published in more than 140 media houses across Africa
10 cross-border investigations
published with interactive maps:
See our investigations
NileWell platform
the first online platform connecting water and environmental scientists and journalists in the Nile Basin
Youth SciComm Competition
for journalism and science students, held annually
InfoNile Whatsapp Chat
an automated chatbot that delivers stories, data and mobile magazines
