The 6th African Regional Conference on Irrigation and Drainage
The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) organizes Regional Conferences on themes of interest to its members in different regions of the world.
These Regional Conferences, viz. Asian Regional Conference, European Regional Conference, African Regional Conference and Pan-American Regional Conference provide a common platform to countries in these regions to address the issues and problems specific to that particular region.
The Regional Conferences are sometimes organized alongside an ICID’s International Executive Council meetings and sometimes organized as a standalone event.
Africa with 15 percent of the global population has only 9 percent of the world’s renewable water resources and that too are unevenly distributed. Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change and its variability.
The region encompasses 53 countries, of which 34 are categorized as Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The region often faces contradictory challenges of surplus and scarcity of land and water resources.
There are also vast differences as regards socio-economic developments among sub-regions -under-development and over-exploitation. ICID believes that agricultural growth offers a potentially powerful tool for ensuring food security and spearhead poverty reduction in Africa.
Presently, only 4.6 percent of its total arable and permanent crop land is equipped for irrigation while the potential is 6 percent. There is also a need to enhance capacity to address challenges for meeting growing water demand for agriculture, and managing water under global climate change.
To address the various issue related to agricultural water management, ICID established the African Regional Working Group (AFRWG) in 2000 with the objective of promoting strong communications and networking among African countries as well as regional and international institutions for enhancing cooperation and coordination. ICID has developed a special Africa Focus Program and the AFRWG works closely with regional associations like SARIA and ARID.
To focus on exchange of latest technical know-how and developments in the irrigation and drainage sector, ICID’s African Regional Working Group (AFRWG) organizes conferences in chosen countries. So far 5 African Regional Conferences have been held addressing matters related to African issues.