04 December 2017 - 06 December 2017
Entebbe, Uganda
Key actors in the Lake Victoria Basin came together with the IIASA WFaS team to; engage in mutual learning, create future water demand scenarios and explore regional water management options. This involved exploring development pathways and identifing priorities, potential investments and solutions.
The workshop had the following objectives:
Building on the rich experience available in various institutions operating in mid- to long term water resources management and planning issues in Easter Africa the workshop triggered the following follow-up work:
Funded by: IIASA, Austrian Development Agency, Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment
Co-organised by: IIASA and the Directorate of Water Resources Management (DWRM) of the Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment.
The workshop was attended by over 50 participants covering a wide range of stakeholders:
Day 1: Sharing experience on modelling work
Participants exchanged on ongoing activities, existing experience and planned initiatives in the area of modelling applications and tools supporting mid- to long-term water resources management and planning in East Africa. Interactive discussions revealed a number of key challenges & opportunities in regard to using modelling work for supporting wise water resources planning.
Day 2: Understanding regional development scenarios
The East African Community (EAC) vision 2050 and the countries’ development visions together with the commitment to the SDGs will shape the future developments in the Lake Victoria Basins. One full workshop day was dedicated to have a deeper understanding of development scenarios resulting from these visions and how water can support these development aspirations as an enabler on the one side and how the water resources are likely to be adversely affected on the other side.
Day 3: Building collaboration on future research
On the last day, participants used the opportunity to build partnerships on boosting modelling and scenario building capacities in the region. Participants worked together in flexible groups which focused on the aspects of capacity development, data and uncertainty, agricultural water and land use, and issues related to scenario development. This gives ground to work further on specific research collaboration and work packages which will be either implemented in the coming year or developed further into funding proposals.
WFaS seeks to incorporate water science into water policy and planning, and applied water management issues.
Set-up as an inter-disciplinary scientific initiative to define the challenges, WFaS identifies and tests solution pathways across different economic sectors, including agriculture, energy and industry while safeguarding the environment. Using in-house hydrological and hydro-economic models, a key research focus is on mid- to long term projections of future water availability and demand, and investment options on how to balance them under different socio-economic, demographic and climatic scenarios, both at global and regional scales including transboundary watersheds. Stakeholder consultation supports co-designing future development scenarios and possible solution options.
After a global analysis undertaken in a first WFaS fast-track assessment, the initiative is currently focusing on Eastern Africa with the Lake Victoria Basin as a key research area. With funding from the Austrian Development Agency, IIASA’s Water Futures and Solutions Initiative formed an East Africa node.
Workshop Report
Links to IIASA Models Discussed
PUBLICATIONS
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313