The official launching and consultative meeting was held to bring together national and regional partners to exchange ideas on developmental issues in water resources, climate change, flooding, water supply, faecal sludge and solid waste management relevant to the sub-region. The meeting was held over three (3) days.
The first day brought together over one hundred and twenty participants drawn from academia and water sanitation practitioners from Ghana, as well as regional partners from National Water Resources Institute (Nigeria), University of Benin (Nigeria), University of Cheikh Anta Diop (Senegal) and the Ministry of Education, the Gambia. Prof. William Otoo Ellis, Vice-Chancellor of KNUST officially launched the Centre. In his opening address, he acknowledged that the RWESCK presents KNUST the opportunity to train experts in the sub-region to bridge the human resource gap needed to achieve the vision 2020 water agenda. Prof. Samuel Nii Odai, Pro Vice- Chancellor of KNUST and Centre Leader enlightened participants on the vision of the Centre. As background, he stated that the Dutch government provided the Civil Engineering Department funds to commence two Masters programmes in Water Resources, Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation after a capacity gap assessment revealed that there is limited opportunity for postgraduate training in the sector and also for research. The RWESCK with funding from the World Bank aims to provide training at the Master and PhD levels and also through specialised trainings and short courses.
Good will messages were received from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, National Council for Tertiary Education as well as from the regional partners. Partnership agreements were also signed between KNUST and all stakeholders.
Three technical presentations in Water and Sanitation were made, after which plenary sessions were held. Among others, the presentations highlighted the major challenges in the WaSH sectors. These included financial gaps for infrastructure development, human capacity gaps, lack of appropriated technologies, outmoded laws and the lack of resilient climate infrastructure. The presentations were meant to set the stage for further deliberations on day 2, aimed at defining the Centres research agenda and also identify training needs.
The second day highlighted developmental challenges, the Centres’ research agenda, long and short term training needs as well as internships and mentoring opportunities for postgraduate students. Stakeholders identified that developmental challenges bordered around issues relating to reliability and storage of data, pollution of water resources, poor and ageing infrastructure, resilient climate infrastructure, treatment facilities, transboundary issues, law enforcement and implementation challenges, rapid urbanisation and land-use planning, behaviour change, political commitment and financial gaps and the lack of synergy between academia and industry. Research and training is needed in instrumentation, water quality and management, waste to energy, early warning systems, climate change models, water governance and utility management, water treatment technologies, low-cost faecal sludge, excreta and hygiene technologies, bioremediation and treatment of hazardous waste.
In terms of national capacity and inputs, stakeholders proposed the need to develop a national water research policy and also establish research and development units across the WaSH sectors plus well-equipped research centres nationwide. Additionally, it was proposed that the WaSH sectors should be adequately resourced by government.
Day three (3) was limited to regional partners, academic partners and some industry partners. Discussions centred on opportunities for further collaboration, country specific training needs and other businesses.
Over the three days, two (2) training workshops were delivered by Eileen Chappell of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; the first on “fostering a culture of collaboration between academia and industry” and “working together as a consortium” were delivered on day two (2) and three (3) respectively.
Overall, the three (3) day meeting highlighted strategies to scale-up graduate education, define a research agenda, build capacity of practitioners and lead innovation in water and sanitation technologies.
