Partnerships for Development African Science Academy Development Initiative URBAN WATER ISSUES Kala Vairavamoorthy Royal Society – London, 5 th Nov 2008.

Partnerships for DevelopmentAfrican Science Academy Development Initiative

URBAN WATER ISSUES

Kala Vairavamoorthy

Royal Society – London, 5th Nov 2008

Existing Partnerships

• Networks

– PoWER, WATERNET (e.g. Waternet network of 56 education institutes in Southern and Eastern Africa)

• PG and Research Development

– Rwanda (NUR), Ghana (KNUST), Kenya (IMTR, UoN) – PG courses and research development

– Managing Water in African Cities - training professionals in water management.

• Research

– SWITCH – Accra, Alexandria (Kampala?)– East Africa Water Centre – NWSC and Makeree

S W I T C H

Managing Urban Water for the Future

S W I T C H

10 global cities

Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Tel Aviv, Israel

Birmingham, UKHamburg, Germany

Lodz, PolandZaragoza, Spain

Accra, Ghana

Beijing, China

Alexandria, EgyptChong Qing, China

Learning Alliances

SWITCH inter–city IUWM LA platform for inter-city learning

AlexandriaLA platform

Belo Horizonte LA Platform

Birmingham LA platform

Accra LA platform

10

Examples of activities

Bank filtration and soil-aquifer treatment:Demonstrations:Demonstrations:

Accra, Bejing, BirminghamAccra, Bejing, Birmingham

Importance of Partnerships

• Offers opportunities to perform joint research (e.g SWITCH – globally releveant)

• Action Research – Demand-led, action-orientated research in cities resulting in greater impact.

• Integration – interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary research that promotes greater integration

• Multiple-way learning pathways – Fosters North-South, South-North and South-South knowledge exchange (by pooling scientific, technological knowledge etc.)

• Best Practice - Report and document best practice with a view of encouraging replication elsewhere

Entire earth system is changing!

Global Future Challenges

Source: UN (2003)

Number of urban residents added to the urban milieu between 2000 and 2015

6

Future Opportunities

• SWITCH Africa ?

– Devoted to developing sustainable urban water management strategies for the region’s cities – needs support for this (lead by Ghana, WRC SA?).

• UNESCO-IHP - 7th Phase

– Promote and lead international hydrological research - action-oriented and policy-relevant.

– Greater participation of African academics will ensure outcomes are more globally applicable

Future Opportunities

• WSSTP - Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform (European TP)

– Aims to undertake research that addresses the global water agenda.

– Involvement of African academics will strengthen this programme.

– Solutions will be developed through pilots that will twin an urban area in Europe with one in a developing country

– Solutions developed in partnership with stakeholders to ensure they are locally applicable

Kalanithy Vairavamoorthy

[email protected]

Thank You