ENTRO participates in regional and international conferences, presents experiences and learns from others

ENTRO’s Executive Director, Dr. Salih Hamid, and the Regional Dam Safety Coordinator, Eng. Michael Abebe, attended the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) 90th Annual meeting and 27th Congress held in Marseille, from 27th May to 3rd June 2022.

The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) is an international non-governmental organisation dedicated to the sharing of professional information and knowledge of the design, construction, maintenance, and impact of large dams. It was founded in 1928 and has its central office in Paris, France. Currently, 104 countries are members of this professional organisation.

One of the ICOLD long-term strategies for capacity building of African experts is to establish a training centre in Africa specifically focusing on dam safety management. Having a training centre in the African region would translate to increasing access to proper training and opportunities to provide high-quality training courses with competent professionals and bring together countries to share knowledge and experiences, and learn from each other.

The centre will professionalise technical dam safety training, so it is less ad-hoc, reduce the cost of attending training abroad, increase the number of professionals on the continent, and contribute to minimising the risk of dam failure in Africa. Therefore, establishing a regional dam safety training centre with a well-structured training curriculum would assist governments, regulators, dam owners, operators, experts, etc. to build their capacity in dealing with dam safety management.

The World Bank commenced a new dam safety capacity building programme for the 10 Nile Basin countries in 2021. This programme is part of the Nile Cooperation for Climate Resilience Project (2020-2025). The objective of this project is to facilitate cooperation for climate resilient water resources management and development in the Nile Basin. The work will be delivered through regional processes where the platform for dialogue, trust building, capacity of Member States and stakeholder engagement are the long-term objectives of the programme.

One of the key components of the Nile Basin dam safety capacity building programme is to establish a dam safety training centre in one of the Nile Basin countries. The Nile basin covers 25% of the African region.

The main tasks of this assignment are to identify key human and institutional capacity gaps, training needs and develop a strategic document for subsequent activities including, but not limited to, curriculum development, training modules and a framework for a regional training centre to enhance the skills, knowledge, capacity and competencies of dam owners, regulators, policymakers, operators, technicians, etc. in the Nile basin.

ICOLD Board has commended the support given by the World Bank and endorsed the proposal to establish a dam safety training centre in one of the Nile Basin countries and consider it as one of its long term strategies as this training centre could serve as a knowledge hub for the whole African continent.

Moreover, ENTRO’s ED and the Regional Dam Safety Coordinator had a fruitful discussion with the newly elected ICOLD president and WB Lead Dam Safety Specialist, Kimberly Lyon, on how to strengthen the support of ICOLD and World Bank to the Eastern Nile countries in the dam safety capacity building programme.

They also had the opportunity to meet a representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) on capacity building of African Countries on dam safety related areas and exchanged ideas to work together in the region.

At the end of the congress, Eng. Michael Abebe received a certificate (Honorary Vice President) and medal award for his services during the last four years as vice president of ICOLD.