Showcasing African Initiatives

22 March 2017

The first day of the AfriAlliance Launch Conference was concluded with a highly interactive session showcasing different African initiatives touching upon the themes of water and climate. Kicking off the session, eight presenters were asked to “pitch” their initiative in just only one minute to attract the attention of the audience and to invite them to participate in the more detailed presentation and discussion. Then, the audience had the opportunity to join three rounds of presentations in this carousel styled session. 

The following initiatives were showcased:

• Technology Approval Group (TAG) project: In the last ten years Isle Utilities has worked on innovation platforms with Water Utilities to jointly develop innovative technologies. Now they are starting in Africa.
• WACDEP: GWP and AMCOW joined forces to implement a programme for Water and Climate involving a number of countries (23) and river basins (8) in Africa.
• SAFEWATER Africa: Funded by the H2020 programme, a decentralised system for rural areas is developed by African partners, incorporating capacity building and involvement of local communities.
• WADER: With a strong emphasis on the need for innovative solutions addressing the challenges of the water sector, the project demonstrates a number of technologies in the pipeline for Africa.
• VICINAQUA: This project focuses on wastewater treatment, as well as power and energy, including social aspects and gender equality.
• WATERSPOUTT: The project develops a next generation of water technologies such as providing water at household level by solar disinfection.
• MADFORWATER: While water contamination is a challenge, as is water security and integrated water resources management, there are also huge resources not addressed, such as treated water resources and reclaimed water. Eleven technologies are tested with different aspects and four pilots in different parts of Africa.
• WATERFUND: Focussing on the way which urban area managed water supply will determine development, innovative long term solutions.

Wrapping up the session, the presenters were asked to share their most important insights that came from their interactions with the audience, namely  i) that capacity development is an essential component of all projects and ii) that technology alone will not help solve water and climate challenges. Successful projects will therefore need to find ways to address the social dimensions involved in implementing technological solutions.