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The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is establishing a new regional Groundwater Management Institute to be located in South Africa and be operational by the end of 2009.
Establishment of a regional Groundwater Management Institute (GMI) is one of SADC’s responses to the issues and challenges facing groundwater and its management in the sub-region. The Institution will raise the understanding of groundwater management through action-oriented research, knowledge management, awareness raising, coordination and capacity building.
Processes towards establishing the GMI are being driven by the SADC project on Groundwater and Drought Management, which is supported with funding from the Global Environmental Facility Trust Fund, and SADC Members States, with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) as an implementing agency.
To introduce the GMI to the wider global water community, the SADC Groundwater and Drought Management Project will be presenting the Business Case of the Institute at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, during one of the lunch hour Side Events on 17th March 2009.
The 5th World Water Forum, the world's largest water-related event, will convene in Istanbul, Turkey from 16 – 22 March 2009, to push the worldwide water crisis onto the international agenda. Held every three years, the Forum gathers together interested parties from every horizon to find sustainable solutions to the world's daily water challenges. With more than 3000 participating organizations, attendees will include international heads of state, United Nations representatives, parliamentarians, local authorities and other government officials, as well as water professionals, activists and other interested parties. The Forum is a unique platform where individuals from both inside and outside the water sector interact and debate to, create broader awareness for water-related issues and find solutions.
"The ultimate goal of the 5th World Water Forum Istanbul 2009 is to motivate action to improve the world's management of water resources," says Prof. Dr. Oktay Tabasaran, the Forum's secretary-general. "This can only be done by raising awareness of the importance of water-related issues. However, global awareness must be followed by action-such as legislation, funding, governance and empowerment-all of which are promoted through the Forum," he added.
The vision of the SADC GMI is to “ensure the equitable and sustainable use and protection of groundwater, as well as being a centre of excellence in the areas of groundwater management, groundwater drought and the management of groundwater dependant ecosystems in the region”.
In line with this vision the SADC GMI will have the following objectives:
· Awareness Raising: To raise the level of understanding on groundwater benefits, groundwater management and groundwater drought in the SADC region, through the development and maintenance of a long-term regional awareness and capacity to address groundwater drought;
· Action-oriented Research: To institute, implement and facilitate research in the areas of groundwater, groundwater drought and it’s management;
· Knowledge Management: To provide a regional center for the management of information on groundwater, groundwater drought and its management in the SADC region, through the provision of a repository of data, concepts and lessons learnt;
· Coordination: To provide a regional focal point for the coordination of groundwater activities in the SADC region;
· Financing: Provide a mechanism for soliciting and managing funds in support of groundwater research, development and management in the SADC region; and,
· Capacity building: To build regional capacity in the research, development and management of groundwater resources in the SADC region.
In addition to addressing the aforementioned objectives the GMI will provide continuity of the SADC Groundwater and Drought Management Project outputs and expand on the work completed during the Project.
As SADC is a group of 15 independent countries (member states) spanning southern Africa and in the Indian Ocean, the need for the institute and approval of the concept, and the location of a host institution needed to go through a formalized process to adhere to SADC political process and protocol.
In December 2007 SADC Member States were requested to nominate potential hosts for GMI; fourteen nominations from nine of the Member States were received. Using established criteria the Project Steering Committee developed a ranked shortlist of four potential host institutions. This list was subsequently approved by SADC’s Water Resources Technical Committee in May 2008 and the SADC Integrated Council of Ministers, who approved the shortlist in June 2008, which was subsequently endorsed by the SADC Council in August 2008. Resulting from this process it was determined that the GMI will be hosted at the University of Freestate in Bloemfontein, South Africa. By Barbara Lopi
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