African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

African Water Development Report 2006ent level of sophistication. Consequently, waterresources management in developed countries isnow directed more towards correcting the imbalancesbetween the physical and the social aspectsof water resources development and management.In African countries, where the process ofharnessing water resources for national developmentis at its early stages, the efforts of waterresources management are to be directed moretowards effective and rational planning and developmentof available water resources. However,in Africa, apart from the obvious problems offinance, the problem of manpower to deal withthe diverse forms of water resources systems andtheir interaction with the environment and societynecessitates maintaining a system of continuingeducation.Three of the main ways of knowledge disseminationand transfer are formal and informal education,applied and joint research and networkingbetween water institutions. Together, thesemechanisms and the others also constitute themeans of achieving capacity building. Throughresearch and development, in particular, the necessaryconditions for adapting and assimilatingnew technologies by building the necessary humanand institutional capacity for integrated waterresources management can be created. Theemain means of doing this are discussed below.Education and TrainingAs already mentioned African countries (likemost developing countries) lack the high-levelacademic facilities and infrastructure (includingprogrammes) for highly advanced postgraduatetraining in sustainable water resources developmentand management. Yet in the present ageof globalization, global aspects of education andtraining should not be ignored. The concepts ofglobal climatic and hydrological teleconnections,and also of the impending processes of a climatechange all call for international cooperation tomonitor and develop water resources from aglobal perspective. Technologically, hydrologyand water resources activities have, in recentyears, been largely influenced by developmentsin computer and telecommunication technologies.Methodologies for hydrological and waterresources assessment and modelling involve extensiveuse of computers and such other tools asthe radar and satellite systems. Obviously, continuingeducation should include the disseminationof critical information on the use of thesetechnologies: remote sensing, satellite imagery,telemetry, computer-based water resources managementand decision support systems for irrigation,water supply, environmental control andothers.Formal Education: The main mechanism oftechnology transfer is knowledge acquiredthrough formal educational at the vocationaland university levels. At each level, students areintroduced to state-of-the-art hydrological sciencesand water resources systems as well as theaccompanying basic technological and infrastructurerequirements. Vocational training fortechnicians is normally done in technical institutions;specialized higher technical trainingwithin public works, civil engineering and agriculturalschools. Technicians are trained on howto set up and maintain new and existing technologies.Water professionals are normally drawnfrom different disciplines of university educationlike civil, agricultural or mining engineering andother fields of physical sciences like geology, geographyand physics. First degree courses in hydrology,hydro-meteorology, and water resourcesengineering are available only in large countrieswith enhanced water resources activities whereasmost countries depend more on post-graduatetraining courses to prepare professionals inhydrology and water resources. With respect topostgraduate studies and with special referenceto the UNESCO-sponsored training courses, anattempt is made at this stage to filter out backgroundbiases towards creating professional hydrologists,water resources engineers and managers.It is also at this level that attempts are madeto concretize hydrological and water resourcesconcepts and more specifically the advances in316