by André
I just return from another full month in Mozambique and I am now taking the time to share my thoughts about what happened. Continue reading
Category Archives: André
Laboratory equipment in Maputo
by André
After a long period we finally got some laboratory equipment in Maputo. Celma, Noor and all the BSc and MSc students involved in the project have now access to high-quality laboratory equipment for their work, including a spectrophotometer, several field probes and several other items. All the equipment was donated to Universidade Eduardo Mondlane and can be used for education and research purposes. If you wish more details about the equipment or wish to use it please don’t hesitate to contact us.
All the equipment in boxes last year in Delft.
The equipment in Maputo a coupled of weeks ago.
Three day workshop in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
by André and Noor
On the last week of January 2016 André, Noor and Celma attended an NWO workshop in Ho Hi Minh City, Vietnam. The meeting brought together, for the first time, researchers and PhD candidates involved in the Urbanizing Deltas of the World-I (UDW-I) call, and created an open forum for discussion on the content and on research uptake and stakeholder engagement. Unfortunately not everybody could join, due to visa issues, and that was also the case of our colleague Joaquim. Continue reading
AdeM’s war on water losses
by André
Last time that I was in Maputo for the IMARC workshop we visited the water-treatment plant of Águas da Região de Maputo (AdeM) on the Umbeluzi River. AdeM is the biggest water supplier in Maputo and supplies water to almost half the city’s population. In one of the rooms I spotted this poster. Continue reading
Safe use of wastewater in agriculture
by André
I just came across with this very interesting and informative video produced by the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development that covers issues with reuse of untreated wastewater for irrigation. More information about this project can be found here. Unsurprisingly, the case-studies (Lima, Jakarta and Tehran) presented in the movie share many characteristics with the situation in Maputo, where farmers use the effluent of the wastewater treatment plant that was studied by Irene Caltran in 2014 – make sure to check her report. Continue reading
First group meeting
by André
We organized our first project meeting since the appointment of the four PhD candidates. The two-day meeting took place in Delft on the last week of September and everybody was presented, the PhD candidates and their supervisors and promotors; we were very happy to host Maria Rusca traveling from the UK and Nelson Matsinhe and Sandra Manuel from Mozambique. We would also like to thank Michel Riemersma for taking to time to be present during the first day and presenting the ideas that RoyalHaskoningDHV has for future developments in Maputo. Continue reading
Fecal sludge management platform
by André and Hanneke
We are very happy to finally make this public. For the past few months we have been working on a proposal to create a Fecal Sludge Management platform in the city of Maputo, Mozambique. Continue reading
37th WEDC conference
by André
On the last week of July I attended the 38th WEDC International Conference WEDC. The conference took place at Loughborough University (UK) and had the theme Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services Beyond 2015: Improving access and sustainability. Continue reading
Thoughts on the IMARC workshop
by André and Paul Loth (Dunea)
As I wrote before, we organized a workshop in Maputo on the 6th of July, together with Unesco-IHE, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) and Dunea, to present the Integrated Managed Aquifer Recharge Concept (IMARC). Since the 1950-ies Dunea applies Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) in the coastal dunes of the Netherlands, now providing 1.3 million people with high-quality drinking water. Dunea’s area of operation is around Scheveningen in the West of the country, close to The Hague. Dunea gradually added nature conservation and recreational use as a prototype IMARC – the protected dune areas around Scheveningen yearly receive one million recreational visitors. In the case of Mozambique, we see IMARC as a way of preventing saline intrusion, already a serious issue in some areas of Maputo, while protecting the environment.
For the workshop UEM provided a large and comfortable auditorium and logistic support. UEM also arranged simultaneous translation, which allowed the participants who did not understand Portuguese to follow the presentations and the plenary discussions without problems. We are indebted to UEM for the invaluable support given in organizing the workshop, without them the workshop would not have been such an outstanding success.
Summer school at Eawag
by André
This one comes a bit late but the last few months have been hectic. From 31 May until 5 June I attended the 7th Summer School in Environmental Systems Analysis at Eawag. Continue reading