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In our work, we use cutting- edge science to provide low- cost solutions for better water resources management in the developing world. I work primarily in East Africa, one of the world’s most data poor areas particularly in relation to climate or water resources. We use meteorological and satellite data accessed from around the world, together with local data and freely available climate forecast information. Working with Cornel University, we employ reanalysis using the American NCAR/NCEP facilities – ‘super-computers’ for weather and atmospheric sciences (see NCAR & NOAA) along with other global climate data (e.g. GPCC). We use this information for hydrological modeling and prediction in the Eastern and Southern African currently and we are expanding to other regions of the world.
This is very much at the cutting edge of hydrological science and I feel inspired to be able to fill these gaps in critical information in such a low- cost and practical way.
Charlotte MacAlister,
Researcher - Hydrology,
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia |
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'I love that my research is practical. Thanks to collaborating with various actors, including local partners, its possible for me to contribute towards developing simple and efficient techniques well suited to the socioeconomic environment. In the sanitation sector for example, this allows communities or cities to cope with the issues relating to waste management, which will save thousands of young lives.'
Josiane Nikiema,
Researcher - Resource Recovery and Re-use,
Accra - Ghana |
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'Working with IWMI has given me a variety of experiences from working with not only my own team- IKG but also external ones and more recently the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). This has been a great experience so far given our very small team. Team work is definitely one of the biggest components of making our work a success and I’m confident that any challenges can be met as long as our team stays strong and continues to work in the same fashion.'
Martina Mascarenhas,
Marketing Officer,
Sri Lanka |
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'As one of the longest standing employees of IWMI, the past 26 years have been exciting times for me. I have seen rapid advances in technology- from using primitive and often indistinct, walkie talkies to communicate between Colombo and Digana village, to the modern day, when email, skype and super-fast courier, managed by us using state- of the art software, has created a truly global village between IWMI HQ and our regional offices. Truly amazing advances!’
Sunil Seneviratne,
Manager -
Office Support Systems Office,
Sri Lanka |
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'Being part of the research team in the AWM solutions project was a learning platform. I was impressed by the available AgWater solutions and the endurance of smallholders in using them. We realized that a lot of the indigenous knowledge that could benefit the research community is available at grass roots level. We also learned that a lot of AgWater solutions exist but are constrained by policy, technology and institutional factors. We were able to bypass some of these constraints through our research findings and stakeholder engagement and successfully informed policy makers like the state minister of agriculture and the Agricultural Transformation Agency about possible solutions for enhancing smallholder livelihoods. '
Gebrehawaria Gebregziabher,
Research Economist,
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia |
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'We are studying a new idea on hydropower in the Mekong; irrigation through electricity. We found that when a reservoir for hydropower is linked to the electricity network, water can be “transferred”, through better coordination in electricity generation, to crops at another location. You just have to change the operating rules at each location 1,000 km away. In North Vietnam, for instance, water was released for irrigation while, correspondingly, water in the Central Vietnam reservoir was stored to generate electricity. So now, power generated by water at other locations can be contributed to the electricity network, so that the reservoirs can release water for irrigation. '
Chu Thai Hoanh,
Principal Researcher - Water Resources,
Vientiane - Laos |
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'I am inspired when I participate in IWMI's data activities, when transforming data into evidence for policy- making in water management and agriculture. I am particularly keen on and am presently following, the growing body of evidence that is being compiled on women’s contribution to agriculture, water management and household food security. For example, gender analysis of the water sector in Africa shows that women play a key role in the multiple uses of water in and around households, in the use and management of water in agriculture, and small-scale activities that allow both men and women to grow more crops, vegetables and rear livestock. Although the different roles of men and women in agriculture in various parts of Sub-Saharan Africa have been widely acknowledged, there have been no consistent efforts to collect data on these patterns. I look forward to IWMI being a key player in compiling such data which could be used for programs to uplift livelihoods. '
Christopher Manyamba,
Research Officer: Statistics,
Pretoria - South Africa |
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'I am working within a team that is studying resource recovery and reuse (nutrients) and trying to identify successful waste business ideas that could be implemented across Africa and Asia. It’s very satisfying to know that I can apply my technical knowledge and experience to help establish and grow businesses across the continent. Working at IWMI gives us the opportunity to learn new research ideas and also to contribute to improving the research theme.'
Surendra K Pradhan,
(PhD, MPH) Post-doctoral fellow,
Accra - Ghana |
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'I was amazed at the prosperity of Moragoda village, during a recent visit there. I learned that this was the result of finding more sources of groundwater, which water pumps and excavation machinery have made possible. Now the farmers can diversify their crops. Earlier, because of their total dependence on rainwater, they could grow only the same pulses and grains, which caused a glut in the market and greatly reduced demand. Now they cultivate the whole year through, growing more cash crops and vegetables and get good prices for them.'
Ranjith Ariyaratne,
Field Researcher,
Sri Lanka |
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'The idea of deriving wealth out of what is considered sheer waste has always fascinated me. In my research work I have come across innovative waste-to-resource business ideas and it is evident that these have tremendous potential in low income countries. Imagine all the waste in the cities of low income countries converted into some sort of useful product. We need to learn about what drives the success of waste-to-business models and how we can export this success to other regions.'
Solomie Gebrezgabher,
Post Doctoral Fellow, Resource Recovery and Re-use,
Accra - Ghana |
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'IWMI is constantly exploring new avenues and new areas of research. For instance, IWMI’s approach to rainwater management is innovative and designed to make agricultural livelihoods productive and resilient. Rainwater is an important source of freshwater that supports agriculture and ecosystems. Such water resources are better managed at watershed and landscape levels. The landscape approach to rainwater management pursued in the Challenge Program on Water and Food is inspiring in that it addresses spatial interactions, synergies, and trade-offs and tries to optimize across bio-physical and socio-economic goals in a sustainable way.'
Kindie Getnet,
Research Economist,
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia |
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'IWMI’s work is not only in pure science, we involve ourselves with communities and policy makers as well. Recently, we started work in the coastal areas and delta portion of Bangladesh, where the vulnerability to climate change is extremely high. This is due to sea level rise, salinity intrusion and changes in precipitation patterns, which affect the livelihoods of large numbers of extremely poor and vulnerable people living there. In our work under the Ganges Basin Development Challenge Projects we are trying to see what the impacts of climate change are and what research we can do for climate change adaptation and mitigation. We will be teaching the poor fishermen and rice farmers living in these coastal areas to manage the overall impact of such disasters themselves and so alleviate their impact as and when they happen. This will help them manage their livelihoods much better.'
Bharat R. Sharma,
Principal Researcher and Coordinator,
New Delhi - India |
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'I’m inspired by the fact that I’m putting my time into what actually makes impact. I believe that by improving water resources management in countries in, say, sub-Saharan Africa, we will be able to provide better livelihoods for the people who live there. My research is on accounting for water use and productivity, with a focus on the use of space-born data. We don’t have much data on water use and, in general, on the water resources situation in many countries around the world. So in many cases we have to either step back or make assumptions. The use of satellite remote sensing can help us overcome data availability and access issues. With these state- of- the- art technologies we can come up with water accounts and water balance numbers that will enable policymakers and water experts make informed decisions for the future. '
Poolad Karimi,
Research Officer,
Sri Lanka |
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'I enjoy my work because it brings very important results. I am now working in a very interesting direction in using remote sensing and GIS for land and water management. One innovative approach is to model the amount of evaporated and transpirated water from land surfaces (soil and vegetation). For water management in irrigation it is important to know the actual evapotranspiration values during crop growth stages because they represent crop water use inside the investigated area. Soil salinity mapping is another area in which remote sensing data is being used effectively. There are usually two approaches - analysing reflectances from bare soil in different spectral bands of satellite images; linking the vegetation stress coefficient to soil salinity calculated from satellite images using any kind of vegetation indices. As both approaches have advantages and disadvantages, a mix of these methods could produce more accurate outputs.'
Alexander Platonov,
Researcher (GIS/RS Specialist), Tashkent - Uzbekistan |
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'What is most amazing in a research organization like IWMI is that it enables researchers from a variety of backgrounds to bring their skills together. Take for example the Techie’s Meeting we had at HQ recently. People with a variety of skills, from bio-physical modelers to those with remote sensing skills, through from relatively new staff to people who have been with IWMI for quite some time, shared their experiences. It was great to see the breadth of the topics being covered. There were also some specific areas where we had real depth and have been able to influence shaping external policy. At the same time, as a new idea, we brought in external people to get some of their insights. So we were not always examining what we were doing ourselves. It also made us think about what framework would tie us all together under the new research program Water, Land and Eco systems. Everybody was feeling very invigorated and were going back to their regional offices to share with their colleagues. It has been a very positive experience'
Simon Langan,
Senior Researcher- Agricultural Water Management and Head of Office, Addis Ababa - Ethiopia |
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"My work on groundwater in Sub Saharan Africa is both interesting and challenging. Groundwater in Africa plays a big role. Traditionally, 70% of the Sub Saharan African population depend on it for their domestic supply. In many places groundwater is under your feet, even during times of drought. So groundwater can come into the picture here and the question is how do you use this natural resource for the supply of water and perhaps also for increasing the storage. One major constraint in Africa is the lack of knowledge and capacity for developing and using groundwater. I am trying to look across from traditional thinking to bring other types of groundwater use into the picture: to look at groundwater for irrigation and multiple use, to also enable people to have a livelihood. But local populations are not used to thinking of groundwater as a solution. Also, the facilities, systems and institutions are not in place to maintain the systems for groundwater, even for drinking water - they breakdown and are not maintained. About 70% of wells are not functioning now so people have to go back to using unsecured, dirty water. We are also trying to use the present international focus on groundwater to get it more on the political agenda and to make policymakers aware of its role too. It’s a process but it is changing. In the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region where I work, for instance, groundwater is increasingly being included in projects, programs and into drought strategies. Technical, research and management capacity is also being developed in institutions."
Karen Villholth,
Senior Researcher - Groundwater Management,
Pretoria - South Africa |
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'In my work in hydrological modeling, I have come to realize the tremendous breakthroughs that recent advances in remote sensing have made. We will soon know much more about the quantities of surface water stored in Sri Lanka. Such knowledge will be invaluable in IWMI’s research. The vast possibilities of remote sensing can also be extended to gather information from difficult- to- reach areas like conflict affected zones, dense tropical forests and mountainous terrain. Truly innovative!'
Nishadi Eriyagama,
Water Resources Engineer,
Sri Lanka |
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'IWMI always searches for promising solutions and identifies, analyses and supports best practices in community-driven water development. Through our excellent internal and external professional networks, we have the capacity to catalyse evidence-based exchanges and to make a difference across the globe. IWMI continues to allow me to work on cutting-edge solutions for pro-poor and gender equitable water development. Nowadays, participatory approaches for more livelihood benefits and sustainability are fast gaining ground in poverty eradication programs around the world. But the water sector is still quite top-down and divided along administrative silos that focus on just one water use instead of people’s holistic needs for water from multiple conjunctive sources. I was really proud when I invited my colleague from IWMI India to present IWMI’s research findings on water asset creation in India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA/S) to a keenly interested audience in South Africa, recently. This type of dialogue fast-tracks replication and adjustment lessons from NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). Planting seeds of new evidence-based solutions in a fertile African environment has yielded abundant fruits.'
Barbara Van Koppen,
Rural Sociologist & Gender Expert,
Pretoria - South Africa |
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'My project ‘URAdapt’ aims to reduce the vulnerabilities of Accra (Ghana) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) to climate change through improved urban water management practices. Climate change and water management experts, decision-makers and representatives of vulnerable communities are working together to design adaptation strategies for the water-use sectors in the two cities. Getting to interact with these experts and learning new things from them is the best part of my job! '
Edmund Kyei Akoto-Danso,
Junior Research Officer ,
Accra - Ghana |
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'Working with local communities in the remotest parts of the Ethiopian highlands is a never-to be forgotten experience, our first of this area. IWMI works in such communities to help improve their livelihoods through improved rainwater management practices. To gain insights into the biophysical conditions of the highlands, IWMI conducted hydrological and meteorological monitoring activities. The communities showed great enthusiasm and were keenly involved in our monitoring activities. They were amazed at how weather information is collected and transmitted- information they used to hear only on the local radio. IWMI’s work in the area is proving invaluable to them because they can now tell how much rain falls and can plan their farming activities accordingly. '
Birhanu Zemadim,
PDF - Field Hydrology ,
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia |
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'Being able to do the kind of research that can make a difference in the lives of the people is what inspiration me. Recently, my research findings helped influence the government of West Bengal and they changed some restrictive clauses of the Groundwater Act. Now farmers will have easier access to groundwater, which means they can grow more food and substantially improve their livelihoods. This may as well usher in a second green revolution in the state.’ '
Aditi Mukherji,
Senior Researcher,
New Delhi - India |
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'By collecting various spatial data sets – for instance on the location and storage capacity of small reservoirs, soil types, land use patterns, flood prone zones – we are able to identify areas vulnerable to erosion, sedimentation and flooding then inform communities on viable interventions that will prevent such catastrophes. This kind of data coupled with other field surveys has revealed numerous trends. One of these is demographic transitions which are increasing the demand and pressure on the limited resources - vegetation cover, land use, soil and water resources. The rate of population growth in the Volta Basin currently stands at 3 % p.a. However, the water resources are not necessarily increasing, on the contrary, they are decreasing owing to the variable climatic patterns yet it is critical to extend the production cycle of these water points. This is interesting and exciting for IWMI’s research because it identifies a niche where we really need to manage the existing water resources more proactively through community participation and scientific research. For example a community in Northern Ghana in the Golinga area is currently looking at creating buffer zones around various water points because they have identified them as common use areas for livestock, crops and domestic water use. '
Fred Kizito,
Researcher - Soil/Water Res. Specialist, Accra - Ghana |
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'I find a lot of inspiration in my surroundings in the Human Resources Division. My work challenges me, changes my perspective, taps into my feelings and inspires me to contribute. Meeting people, working with the team and learning from them, all this motivates me. To be a part of HR has truly inspired me to be my best.'
Viranga Kularatne,
Human Resources Assistant,
Sri Lanka |
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'At IWMI, we take a holistic approach in our research. We realize that building capacities is fundamental to the continuity of any project outcome. Take for instance, the IWMI- TATA drip irrigation capacity building program that covered 100 villages and 1000 farmers in Tamilnadu, India. We won 2 Rotary awards for it, and now the program is being extended for another three years to cover more farmers who demand it. Its success was due to the fact that we provided the farmers with hands- on training on drip irrigation methods along with other advice on progressive farming.'
Palanisami Kuppannan,
Principal Researcher,
Hyderabad - India |
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'I find I am always on the go - handling numerous logistical tasks all at once - whether it is scheduling vehicle and drivers, shipping supplies or liaising with stakeholders. Our organisation is continuing to grow. We have new researchers coming on board and I believe each and every one of them will join with us administrative staff to help us continue to achieve our goals over the next five years and beyond.'
Eric Adu,
Administrative officer logistics,
Accra - Ghana |
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'IWMI has many innovation tools that are vital for facilitating research. And we too, as researchers, need to innovate as we go along. The IWMI data portal, for instance, is invaluable, especially for us who work in a data poor country like Nepal. It is very useful internally since IWMI operates on a project- to- project basis and data, easily lost, could be stored for use from one project to another. The Portal is also valuable for external use, as many international consultants come to us in search of data resources since the national level databases are weak or non-existent. So we are increasingly coming to realize that part of our work in Nepal is to store data we have either collected ourselves – socio-economic, survey data as well as secondary data on census, and spatial data like land use which we many not necessarily have collected ourselves. We could act as a first stop by housing this data under one roof for access by Phd university students, government departments and international experts as well as provide links to where data is housed in other locations, which could save a few months or weeks in time for people searching for this data. '
Luna Bharati,
Head of IWMI-Nepal Office, Kathmandu |
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'I take inspiration in that IWMI provides us an opportunity to help change people’s lives for the better in regions of the world where it probably matters the most. My specialty, groundwater still remains off the radar or misunderstood and it’s sustainable management a lofty goal. We are working towards improving management in over-exploited areas and to expand utilization in areas where it is not yet recognized as a livelihood opportunity. Another area of interest is how to tackle the dual problems of floods and droughts in an integrated manner - are these really separate problems or is there one solution for both problems, recognizing that periods of water excess and deficit often take place sequentially and on a regular basis. We are exploring whether excess water can be stored underground to provide for times it is needed, in ways that protect urban infrastructure and enhance livelihoods for smallholder farmers in rainfed areas upstream.'
Paul Pavelic,
Senior Researcher - Hydrogeology,
Vientiane - Laos |
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