News & Announcements

SADC-GMI in collaboration with the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) and Institute for Groundwater Studies (IGS) hosted and facilitated the Young Professionals Training/Workshop from 29 – 31 of May 2018,  at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. The Young professionals training was part of the on-going Capacity building for groundwater data collection and management in SADC member states (SADC-GW-DataCoM project) which is being implemented by IGRAC and  IGS on behalf of the SADC-GMI. The project has a capacity building component, under which two young professionals from each SADC Member State and Institute for Groundwater Studies are contracted.Upon appointment to the project, the young professionals were given assignments to complete under the guidance of the project team from IGRAC and IGS. The workshop was aimed at providing the young professionals with the opportunity to present the progress of their first assignment while interacting and networking with their  colleagues from other countries. The overall objective being to develop a crop of groundwater professionals who share a common understanding of groundwater data collection and management practices based on international best practices.

On day one the young professionals presented the preliminary findings of an assignment on the status of groundwater data management in their respective Member States.The afternoon was a lecture in the basics on Groundwater. Day 2 focussed on groundwater data collection and included making home-made groundwater dip meters, use of a borehole camera and borehole profiling at the IGS experimental site.

The training was facilitated by Mr Eelco Lukas and Dr Modreck Gomo – Institute for groundwater Studies, Mr.  Geert-Jan Nijsten and Dr. ArnaudSterckx-International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) and Mr Brighton Munyai, SADC-GMI Technical Advisor.

The next workshop is scheduled to take place in November where young professionals will present the progress of their second assignment and other developments that would have taken place between the previous workshop and November. The November workshop will also be attended by Senior professionals from the Member States.