Workshop held for young professionals from SADC member states

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On 3-4 March, IGRAC and SADC-GMI held a workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa, within the framework of the Expansion of the SADC Groundwater Information portal (SADC-GIP) project. This workshop was organised for the young professionals to share experience and wrap up the situation analysis. 

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Presentation by Raquel Sousa
Presentation by Raquel Sousa

In total, 23 young professionals attended the workshop, representing 12 SADC countries. These young professionals presented the outcomes of the assessment on the capacity of the SADC member states with regards to groundwater data storage and sharing. Also, several group discussions were held around the importance of groundwater data sharing, technical and governance challenges related to the storage and sharing of data and strategies for improvement. 

The workshop was enriched by an inspiring presentation of ORASECOM illustrating the sharing of groundwater data in a large river basin organisation. 

In-country consultations

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GW Well and Water Tank at ZINWA
Groundwater well and water tank at ZINWA

The workshop in Johannesburg was the last of a set of activities aiming at identifying the groundwater datasets and databases in the SADC region and the capacity of the organisations in charge.   

IGRAC previously conducted four in-country consultations. IGRAC met representatives from several organisations in eSwatini, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, including national water departments, water authorities, NGOs, river basin organisations and consultancy companies. These consultations served to evaluate the capacity and the needs in terms of groundwater data storage and sharing in these SADC member states, and to identify relevant groundwater datasets and databases. 

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Country visit
Country visit

These consultations offered the opportunity to discuss, among others, the groundwater data sharing policy of the organisations, their ambitions on groundwater data storage and sharing, the feasibility of linkages between their databases and the SADC-GIP, as well as the capacity-building activities they could benefit from.