WaterNet: Building Capacity for water Resources management in Southern Africa

WaterNet ambition is to strengthen the overall human and in institutional capacity of the water sector in Southern Africa through education, research and training.

So far WaterNet has achieved to:

• Raise awareness with regard to the regional scale of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) among policy makers, institutes of people active in this field WaterNet is an official programme under the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
• Stimulate regional cooperation and increase the accessibility to education in the field of IWRM by offering a regional modular Master Degree Programme. The Programme has 6 specializations each hosted at a WaterNet Member Institute and until 2007 in total 173 students have graduated.
• Stimulate, regionalize and strengthen research in the fields of IWRM in Southern Africa by:
  • Offering opportunities to perform joint research between WaterNet Members. So far research is carried out in the Limpopo Basin (Challenge Programme on Water for Food) and the Thukela and Pangani Basins (Smallholder System Innovations in Integrated Watershed Management Programme).
  • Organizing annual Scientific Symposia which are attended by more the 200 water professionals from Southern Africa and beyond.

Waternet was conceptualised in 1997 at the SADC-EU conference on the Management of Shared River Basins in Maseru, Lesotho, where ministers of water of Southern Africa and Europe emphasized the need to ‘level the playing field’ between riparian countries and to develop capacity building programs in order to achieve this goal.

The University of Zimbabwe and UNESCO-IHE jointly developed the concept of pooling expertise among universities in the region to establish a broad and multi-disciplinary programme with specialization tailored to wide spectrum of postgraduate students.

This concept became the WaterNet programme subsequently endorsed by SADC Water Sector and the Global Water Partnership (GWP). Eighteen institutions founded WaterNet in March 2000 in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, with funding from DGIS and Sida.

In the mean time WaterNet has grown to more than 56 members from 15 countries representing educational and knowledge institutes but also governmental and private sector organizations in Southern and Eastern Africa.

In 2006 WaterNet was established as independent Trust and which is fully governed and implemented by the WaterNet Board of Trustees.

The WaterNet concept is based on collaboration between Knowledge Institutes to enhance access to education, training and promote research into integrated water resources management in the whole Southern and Eastern African region. It is combining the comparative water-related expertise of the Members which is the strength of WaterNet.

The WaterNet Masters Degree Programme in Integrated Water Resources Management is offered by Universities of the region. Students obtain a Masters degree by following a modular programme taught at different universities in the network, as well as completing a dissertation project. The Programme has a modular set-up with six specializations and participants follow modules at their own preferred pace. Participants may also decide to follow only a few modules as an alternative way of professional training. WaterNet facilitates the mutual accreditation of the modules, and peer review and external examination ensures that high quality standards are maintained.

The comparative strength of the Members allows for a high quality comprehensive Masters programme and joint research activities. Pooling expertise is seen as the most efficient method towards education and research that is truly inter-disciplinary, encompassing all the important aspects of Integrated Water Resources Management. The collaboration will help to enhance the capacity to deal with cross-border issues of some of the weaker countries in the region.

As importantly, such a regional approach engenders an understanding of the transboundary issues of integrated water resource management, thereby encouraging regional cooperation and institution building across national boundaries.

Since 2003 WaterNet runs a Masters Degree Programme in Integrated Water Resources Management. Already more than 26 course modules have been developed for the Master programme and six specializations are offered by Member Institutes, namely:

· Water Resources Management at the University of Zimbabwe

· Water and Environment at the University of Malawi

· Hydrology at the University of Dar es Salaam

· Water for People at the Polytechnic of Namibia

· Water and Society at the University of Western Cape

· Water and Land at the University of Botswana

Until 2007 173 students in total have been graduated. Each year several short courses are also offered to water sector specialists.

So far WaterNet is involved in research in the Limpopo Basin funded by the Challenge Programme on Water for Food and the Thukela & Pangani Basins within the Smallholder System Innovations in Integrated Watershed Management Programme.

Annual Scientific Water Symposia have been held in Maputo (2000), Cape Town (2001), Dar es Salaam (2002), Gaborone (2003), Windhoek (2004), Swaziland (2005), Malawi (2006) and Zambia (2007). The last symposium in Zambia was attended by more than 250 water professionals with 83 papers presented and over almost 200 posters e.

WaterNet is established as an independent Trust and will in 2008 take over the implementation responsibilities from UNESCO-IHE.