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
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.
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
by André
I have just updated our publication list with the inclusion of Sven‘s and Sebastiaan‘s BSc reports. Continue reading
by André
We are now in the final stages of organizing the workshop in Maputo about Aquifer Recharge and you can now download a preliminary program. We have already received several confirmations and we are looking forward to meeting you all.
by André
At the beginning of 2015 NWO launched a second call with the theme Urbanising Deltas of the World:
Urbanising Deltas of the World (UDW) has launched its second call for proposals, which aims to fund research & innovation projects that address business challenges in deltas in developing countries. Proposals could be submitted until 16 March 2015
In the first call we were one of seven selected projects with a Water Reuse project. This time around, we submitted a proposal around the concept of Integrated Managed Aquifer Recharge and as before we teamed up with amazing partners, including Unesco-IHE, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane FIPAG, ARA Sul, Dunea, Royal HaskoningDHV, Het Waterlaboratorium, AquaforAll, VitensEvides International, Elemental Water Makers and Deltares.
Given that our consortium passed the first approval phase, NWO asked us to organize a workshop involving relevant stakeholders and conducting a joint problem analysis. With this in mind, we are organizing a workshop in the city of Maputo on the 6th of July 2015. You can find more information about the workshop here.
Finally, if you are interested in participating in the workshop, do not hesitate to contact us by sending an email to a.marquesarsenio@tudelft.nl.
by André
We are very happy to announce that all four PhD candidates have been appointed and are now being enrolled at TU Delft and at Unesco-IHE. In the next few months we expect to define clearly the tasks and objectives for each one of the candidates – we will keep you informed.
by André
I was invited by Mediamatic to give a presentation about the work that Odilia and Stefan did in 2014 with members of the agriculture cooperative “Força do Povo”, in the neighbourhood of Inhagóia B in Maputo. Odilia and Stefan investigated the health risk associated with irrigating crops with urine and that was the topic of their BSc thesis. Continue reading
by André
The Aquashare conference took place in Maputo in November of 2014 and I covered that before. It was a three day conference that brought together scientists, practitioners and legislators to discuss water and sanitation in Mozambique.
You can get now copies (in Portuguese) of all presentations here . In the near future you will also be able to grab a copy of the final report entitled “The water in 2025”.
by André
Valentina Zuin defended her PhD last year and someone took the opportunity to film her presentation. It is really worth watching if you want to better understand water supply in Maputo, especially in the peri-urban areas and in the informal settlements. In detail, Valentina studied the water resale market in the city and she shows that resellers do not behave as entrepreneurs and that they are not motivated principally by profits. According to Valentina, these people are typically selling water to i) obtain cash to meet daily subsistence needs, ii) as a form of social insurance and/or iii) to help neighbours.
For some reason I cannot embed the movie in this post but you can find it here.