This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 642224
The H2020 FREEWAT Training the trainers course, after having been held in several locations across Europe (Malta, Greece, Estonia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Germany, …), last week was given at UNESCO- IHP (FREEWAT project partner) premises in Paris.
Rudy Rossetto and Giovanna De Filippis (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna - Institute of Life Sciences) and Violeta Velasco-Mansilla (IDAEA-CSIC, Spain) taught a five-days course to present the FREEWAT platform capabilities to staff of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (Namibia), Department of Water Affairs (Botswana) and PhD and MSc Students of the University of North West and Pretoria (South Africa).
During the five days, awareness and interest were raised on the role that ICT may play in promoting water resource management through a deeper understanding of natural and manmade hydrological systems, especially when conjunctive use of surface- and ground-water is of concern.
Tales Carvalho Resende (UNESCO-IHP) presented the Stampriet transboundary aquifer (shared among Namibia, Botswana and South-Africa) case study that will be analysed within the framework of the FREEWAT project. This system sustains all the agricultural and stocking activities in the area. There, 52% of the ground-water is used for irrigation, 32% for stocking and 16% for drinking purposes. Harmonized policies based on scientifically-sounding water management and planning are needed to assure a correct exploitation of the water resource among the three countries.
Finally, synergies and ways of cooperation among the FREEWAT project and UNESCO’s Hydro Free and/or Free and FOSS Platform of Experts (HOPE) Initiative (http://www.hope-initiative.net/) and the GGRETA project (http://groundwatercop.iwlearn.net/ggreta) were discussed.