Employment minister, Gaudentia Kabaka
Policy
and decision makers in the country have been challenged to use research
findings to ensure that Africa’s deltas and floodplains are conserved
for the good of not only the country but all of humanity.
Airing the challenge, Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Knowledge Exchange, Prof Florence Luoga told journalists at the opening of the Afrideltas Conference in Dar es Salaam earlier this week that through research, new knowledge is produced and answers found and anchoring on these, good policies and decisions can be made.
Themed: ‘Contemporary Evolution of African Floodplains and Deltas’ the three-day conference brought together scientists from across Africa and beyond to analyze and compare the current evolution of several African deltas and floodplains and explore scenarios for the future.
Some of the topical issues discussed include ‘Recent evolution of flood patterns’, ‘Sharing natural resources in a multi-user context’ and ‘The Future of African floodplains and deltas’.
“Policy makers and decision makers have to seriously consider research advice to avoid any adverse effects that can result should they fail to do so,” Prof Luoga said.
“There is need to have a sufficient number of quality researchers and use their research findings as the basis to make developmental decisions,” he said.
One of the members of the conference’s organising committee, Prof Amos Majule said all over the planet, but especially in Africa, floodplains and deltas are undergoing rapid evolution driven by climate change, modification of the flooding pattern due to dam-building and increased water abstraction upstream.
Other drivers of change are land-use changes in catchment areas, transformation to large-scale irrigation or aquaculture systems.
Another member of the organising committee, Dr Catherine Masao said human beings depend on flood plains and deltas for many of their economic activities including fisheries and hydroelectric power generation.
“They support life…they are the habitat of animals and plants,” she said, adding that “…they also help absorb most of the pollution human beings make.”
Commenting on how African flood plains and deltas’ transformation affects people’s lives, Dr Stephanie Duvail from the Institute de recherché pour le development (IRD) said if you have a dam that is built upstream of a flood plain or delta, then it will transform and control flooding, the wetland engine of productivity.
Scientists attending the conference hail from among other countries Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia, Sudan, Senegal, Nigeria, Belgium, France, and the host Tanzania. The Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Lazaro Nyalandu closed the conference yesterday.
Airing the challenge, Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Knowledge Exchange, Prof Florence Luoga told journalists at the opening of the Afrideltas Conference in Dar es Salaam earlier this week that through research, new knowledge is produced and answers found and anchoring on these, good policies and decisions can be made.
Themed: ‘Contemporary Evolution of African Floodplains and Deltas’ the three-day conference brought together scientists from across Africa and beyond to analyze and compare the current evolution of several African deltas and floodplains and explore scenarios for the future.
Some of the topical issues discussed include ‘Recent evolution of flood patterns’, ‘Sharing natural resources in a multi-user context’ and ‘The Future of African floodplains and deltas’.
“Policy makers and decision makers have to seriously consider research advice to avoid any adverse effects that can result should they fail to do so,” Prof Luoga said.
“There is need to have a sufficient number of quality researchers and use their research findings as the basis to make developmental decisions,” he said.
One of the members of the conference’s organising committee, Prof Amos Majule said all over the planet, but especially in Africa, floodplains and deltas are undergoing rapid evolution driven by climate change, modification of the flooding pattern due to dam-building and increased water abstraction upstream.
Other drivers of change are land-use changes in catchment areas, transformation to large-scale irrigation or aquaculture systems.
Another member of the organising committee, Dr Catherine Masao said human beings depend on flood plains and deltas for many of their economic activities including fisheries and hydroelectric power generation.
“They support life…they are the habitat of animals and plants,” she said, adding that “…they also help absorb most of the pollution human beings make.”
Commenting on how African flood plains and deltas’ transformation affects people’s lives, Dr Stephanie Duvail from the Institute de recherché pour le development (IRD) said if you have a dam that is built upstream of a flood plain or delta, then it will transform and control flooding, the wetland engine of productivity.
Scientists attending the conference hail from among other countries Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia, Sudan, Senegal, Nigeria, Belgium, France, and the host Tanzania. The Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Lazaro Nyalandu closed the conference yesterday.
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