Danida fellows are the driving force behind the newly established Danida Fellows Water Community, which seeks to address water security as the complex, multidimensional challenge it is.
By Nina Vlemmings
“Clean water is vital for public health, food security and economic stability, yet communities throughout the world are experiencing how water systems are under great stress as a result of droughts, floods, pollution and aging infrastructure.”
This is the opening statement in Danida Fellowship Centre’s recently published policy brief that summarises the insights gained from a meta-study covering Danida-funded research projects across diverse contexts in China, Ghana, India and South Africa. Its evidence-based recommendations for integrated and sustainable water resource management span and combine many sectors, highlighting the need for cross-disciplinary collaboration. As it says in the brief, “A clear takeaway from the research is that water security is multidimensional.”
Fortunately, many are aware of this reality and are committed to pooling diverse expertise across organisational and disciplinary boundaries. A key actor in this regard is the intergovernmental Global Water Partnership Organisation (GWPO) whose current strategy is to work in pursuit of a ‘water-secure world’, driven by the knowledge that ‘water is central to economic development, health, food, energy, and climate resilience’. The GWPO’s network comprises more than 2,800 partners and water resource specialists, working across diverse sectors in over 180 countries.
In recognising the multifaceted nature of water resource management, Danida Fellowship Centre is working with GWPO to create spaces for connecting water-related challenges and insights across our networks. Together with a core group of Danida fellow volunteers and water specialists, our two organisations coordinate the recently launched Danida Fellows Water Community.
Dr Nicolette Vermaak, who is a Danida fellow and a senior researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa, says, “The Danida Fellows Water Community is building bridges and networks between people from various countries who may never have considered the possibility of working together if it had not been for the platform that it created. It is also a place of knowledge sharing, of learning together, and of building a better world one puzzle piece at a time.”
Dr Vermaak is a hydrogeologist with significant experience as a researcher, interacting with both policymakers and practitioners on highly technical and complex water issues. She explains the primary challenge she is working on: “We do not have a clear understanding of the interaction between groundwater and surface water which means we may be using groundwater in such a way that it will begin impacting surface water sources and vice versa. Groundwater is still often seen as unreliable, but this is mostly the result of the mismanagement of the wellfields.”
Similarly complex issues are echoed elsewhere on the African continent: “I am interested in how climate variability and extreme weather events affect water availability, access to safe sanitation services, and the sustainability of water management systems,” says Dr Maïmouna Bologo Traoré, lecturer and head of department at the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering in Burkina Faso.
She continues, “The value of the Danida Fellows Water Community comes from the knowledge and insights gained through interactions within the community - knowledge and insights that can be applied to academic activities, capacity-building initiatives, and practical solutions for addressing water and sanitation challenges in a changing climate.”
The Danida Fellows Water Community is hosted on GWPO’s Water Knowledge Hub and its activities are primarily led by Danida fellow volunteers, ensuring that they remain relevant and meaningful to the contexts and work of community members. This global platform is born out of a regional Danida fellow-led initiative in Latin America, namely the ‘Latin America Water Dialogue Series’ and, later, the extended ‘Africa-Latin America Water Dialogue Series’ that was initiated by Danida fellows from Argentina and Ghana.
Join Dr Vermaak, Dr Bologo Traoré and close to 7,000 other water resource management professionals by registering on GWPO’s Water Knowledge Hub. Once you are registered as a member of the Danida Water Fellows Community, we warmly welcome you to join the conversation with other Danida fellows and partners.
