Building capacity for groundwater monitoring

Summary

Lead facilitator for the training Dr. Kevin Pietersen from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Groundwater Management Institute (GMI), said the training had allowed participants to strengthen their knowledge on surface and ground water interactions and conjunctive use of surface and groundwater in the basin. 

LIMCOM Member States have reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing sustainable groundwater monitoring and management in the Limpopo River Basin.

This commitment was made during a capacity-building training workshop for the LIMCOM Groundwater Committee held on 8-11 April in the Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa

Speaking on behalf of the participants, Atanasia Kamasho from the Republic of Zimbabwe said the training is timely and information gained will be shared with other experts back home.

“We have received some practical skills on interpretation of data and analyzing it…and we will implement the skill we learnt here back in our respective countries,” Kamasho said.

Lead facilitator for the training Dr. Kevin Pietersen from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Groundwater Management Institute (GMI), said the training had allowed participants to strengthen their knowledge on surface and ground water interactions and conjunctive use of surface and groundwater in the basin.

As part of the training, a field visit to appreciate groundwater monitoring was conducted in the Mapungubwe National Park, which falls in the Tuli-Karoo Transboundary Aquifers (TBA) area that is shared by three of the four LIMCOM Member States namely Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The workshop was held under the project “Integrated Transboundary River Basin Management for the Sustainable Development of the Limpopo River Basin,” that LIMCOM is implementing in partnership with the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA), with support from the UNDP South Africa, through funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).