Groundwater Capacity Building Initiative (GWCB) in Africa.

In the past few years a number of water sector organizations, supported by bilateral and multilateral donors, have targeted management and development of the groundwater sector, particularly with regard to aligning these with integrated water resources management (IWRM) practices and capacity building.

For example, BGR and CapNet in partnership with WANet, WaterNet and Nile IWRM-net have carried out surveys on groundwater management and capacity building needs in West Africa, Southern Africa and the Nile Basin . In southern Africa, the SADC water secretariat has initiated a Groundwater Drought Management Project (GDMP) in order to strengthen the use and management of groundwater throughout the SADC region and is proposing a Groundwater Management Institution for Southern Africa (GMISA).
Arising particularly from the Southern Africa study came a proposal from WaterNet to form a groundwater group to address the capacity needs and the acknowledgement that progress may not be made without such an initiative. It is in the context of the case study findings on capacity needs and groundwater management problems plus the need to promote action that this workshop has been proposed.

The workshop will take place in Pretoria at Cap-Net offices from July 21 - 22 2008.

The purpose of the proposed workshop is to identify a strategy of capacity building actions contributing to sustainable management of groundwater in the context of an IWRM approach.

Read the concept note