From July 26 to 29, 2021, the regional workshop on strengthening the ecohydrological approach as a tool for improving water quality in West Africa is being held in Abuja, Nigeria.
Organized by the Regional Center for Integrated River Basin Management under the auspices of UNESCO (RC-IRBM) based in Kaduna, Nigeria, the workshop brings together academics, engineers from West, Central Africa, and resource persons. ABV is represented at this workshop by Mr. Salifou DENE, an IT and water-related disaster management expert.
Two resource persons who participated online; are Professor Maciej Zalewski founding father of ecohydrology and Dr. Rahmah Elfithri.
During his presentation, the founding father of ecohydrology introduced the concept, approaches, and challenges of ecohydrology as a tool that can bring more to the health of ecosystems and, is in close line with the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Dr. Rahmah Elfithri, Fellow of the Institute for Environment and Development shared experiences from Malaysia in which, through ecohydrology, water quality challenges have been addressed.
Hadiza Ajoge, a hydrological engineer from RC-IRBM, gender expert, mentioned the need for the application of the gender approach in ecohydrology in our countries. Nowadays, women and young people are the key pieces in sustainable development.
The objective of the workshop is to equip participants with techniques and methods in ecohydrology in order to improve water quality in the West African region and in the medium term to seek integrative projects.
Ecohydrology is a tool that helps solve pollution, ecosystem, and water resource use issues in order to have a healthy ecosystem.
Qualified as a sub-science of hydrology, this is a new notion for the participants who did not fail to call on the RC-IRBM and UNESCO to increase capacity building actions in order to allow its appropriation.
