ECA-supported subregional workshop on water/geo information opens
By Yinka Adeyemi, Communication Officer,SDD, ECA
15 June 2004

A two-day workshop on water/geo information organized by ECA on behalf of UN-Water/Africa and involving 20 participants from seven African countries, opened today in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Co-organized by ECA's sub-regional office in Central Africa, the workshop aims at developing capacities for the development and dissemination of water and geo information.

It will also build capacity on information technology infrastructure for the use of the African Water Information Clearing House and develop metadata nodes from each participating country with a minimum of 20 data sets.

ECA hopes that these objectives would form the basis for improved international cooperation based on sound data and analyses as well as help in building consensus on aspects of transboundary water issues which would stress common interests, instead of competing interests between neighbouring nations.

Five subregional workshops are planned between now and May 2005. A workshop will take place in either Niamey or Accra in September 2004 and another one in Addis Ababa in December this year.

Other workshops are planned for Southern and North Africa for February and May 2005, respectively.

After the training workshops, ECA and UN-Water/Africa expect to provide water data sets and services over the internet so they can be accessed directly by potential users.

"A regional structure will be established to coordinate the development of national water data infrastructure by member states and their participation in regional and global data sharing arrangements will be developed," said ECA.