North Africa & Sahel

The Sahel is an important new focus region for phase 3 of the Water Development Partnership Programme. In preparation, phase 2 of the programme launched the ‘Capacity Development Programme Sahel Region’, to expand IHE Delft’s regional partner network, foster existing partnerships, and identify and better understand regional needs.

With the DUPC2 capacity development programme Sahel region DUPC is investigating how to best jointly address the Sahel needs together with IHE staff, Sahel partners and international partners. The region is considered politically less stable which often also affects the possibilities for people and organizations to address – and strengthen their capacities - on water related issues. Yet, it is well documented that collaborations over water could bring people and nations together and therefore contribute to prosperity of geographical regions. We therefore aim to connect organizations in the Sahel with partners in other regions - through the different learning networks - so that this collaboration can be enhanced and capacities can be strengthened. 

This project deals with the reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation of selective crops, chosen according to the project idea of investigating plant species characterized by the prevailing local conditions (different vulnerability to chemical and microbiological contamination). The current wastewater treatment processes in Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia, include activated sludge systems, membrane biological reactors and constructed wetland. The treated wastewater will be used for the irrigation of model plants in field-scale and/or microcosms and/or in pots, with cultivations irrigated with freshwater as controls. Chemical and microbiological contamination were monitored along complete agricultural production chain in order to evaluate the efficacy of waste water treatment plants and assess the potential impacts of reclaimed water use in Palestine and Morocco. Moreover, two case studies were conducted to study the socio-economic and gender aspects relating to water reuse for agriculture purposes in Palestine and Morocco.

Most countries in the MENA (Middle East and North African) region are listed among the world’s highest water stressed with the least renewable water resources per capita. The project "Supporting capacity development in the MENA region to cope with water scarcity” aims to Strengthen the Capacity of Professionals and Decision Makers in the water sector to improve water management in the MENA region countries to better cope with the challenges of stressed water resources under the impacts of climate change. The project will result in increased capacity of water professionals to meet water specific SDGs under global change, stronger links between research and education to support water specific SDGs, improved institutional capacities and active communities of practice in the MENA region, and open access online courseware through IHE’s website to support water scarcity solutions and sustainable development in the MENA region.

This project aims to strengthen the capacity of the Sudanese water sector in four priority thematic fields selected by the MoIWR. The thematic fields comprise topics related to: hydrology, water resources management, river engineering, irrigation and drainage, water harvesting, drinking water supply, as well as water governance. The project invests heavily in a dedicated group of staff and local experts who will have become the change agents on these selected priority themes upon completion of the project. The training will target different levels of water experts: junior, mid, and senior staff.

With increasing competition over water resources, there is a need for a consistent and transparent reporting of the distribution and use of water between sectors, countries and users to inform river basin planning. The Water Accounting Plus (WA+) framework was developed at IHE with funding from the DUPC2 programme to provide such information using various types of open access databases, including satellite remote sensing data. WA+ provides aggregated information at river basin level as well as in a spatially and temporally distributed manner, while making explicit the water use associated with different land use types.

Learn more by visiting the project website

This collaborative action-research project led by IHE Delft in close partnership with a.o. TARGA-Aide-CRESC, aimed to contribute to ensure that the voices of marginalized smallholder farmers are considered during the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath. The project documented COVID-19 related experiences and impact amongst smallholder farmers in rural areas in Morocco, Algeria and India, identified their needs in order to build resilient strategies, and conducted policy advocacy. Additionally, the project analysed COVID-19 responses at different levels and facilitated joint learning. Results were consolidated in outputs for academia, government and the public.

Learn more about the project by reading this journal article, or reaching out to Lisa Bossenbroek: [email protected]. 

The blog accompanying the podcast on COVID-19 on smallholder farmers and emerging new perspectives can be read by clicking here

This project aims to shed light on the social and ecological impacts of water-based agricultural growth models in Morocco, Algeria, and India by looking at how contemporary processes of agricultural intensification in the two countries re-pattern (gendered) relations of agricultural production, focusing both on relations between different people and on those between people and water. It aims to do so through an examination of different possible farming and water use configurations in the two countries. Led by TARGA-AIDE/CRESC in partnership with Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines Ain Chock Université Hassan II amongst others. This project has published many academic and non-academic  (e.g. news articles or interviews) outputs. The Moroccan partners have engaged in several educational activities and supervised students during fieldwork and training.

Two stories of change video's were created. Click to view the video's here and here. 

Learn more by visiting the (French) project website, or reaching out to Lisa Bossenbroek: [email protected].