Technical Training in East Africa

ICIWaRM, through the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) of the Institute for Water Resources of the US Army Corps of Engineers, has engaged in a series of multi-day workshops and other related activities to "train-the-trainer" for personnel of water ministries in Kenya and Ethiopia. HEC is a world leader in hydrologic and hydraulic modeling; its models and documentation are downloadable without charge from the internet, and are widely used throughout the world. In 2007, the governments of Ethiopia and Kenya requested training in a number of topics including hydrology, hydraulics, and the HEC software used in these fields.

In response, with funding from the Naval Facilities Command (NAVFAC) and Task Force Horn of Africa, HEC personnel conducted a series of workshops in these two countries from 2007 to 2009 on topics such as Introduction to Modeling, Watershed Modeling, and, in collaboration with scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Groundwater Modeling. Follow-up work on hydrologic modeling of the Ogaden Basin in Eastern Ethiopia is ongoing.

For further information, please contact Chris Dunn.