UniWater Education Limited

The MSc program in Hydrogeology and Water Resources Management is set to begin in November 2020 at Aksum University in northern Ethiopia.  UniWater Education is partnering with them to provide assistance with establishing their Field School and coordinating visiting professors from the University of California Santa Barbara and the University of Toronto.  The Groundwater Project’s (www.gw-project.org) inaugural publications related to ‘anything groundwater’ will be used as an online resource (free of charge to anyone wishing to access these books).

In November 2019, UniWater Education signed an agreement with Aksum University in northern Ethiopia to support them in establishing an MSc program in Hydrogeology and Water Resources Management.  The program will be housed at the School of Water Technology at the Shire campus.  The university currently has more than 21,000 students at both a bachelor and masters level, and is one of the ten public “second generation” universities in Ethiopia.  The School of Water Technology is an emerging water-specialized academic and research institute, serving the development of water infrastructure for water security, food security, energy security and ecosystem services by education and research. The new MSc program will be supported by visiting professors from other universities (currently the University of Toronto Scarborough, and the University of California Santa Barbara) for the first three years while staff members complete their studies as PhD candidates.  Of critical importance in this relationship is the establishment of a Field School, where students learn to put theory into practice.  Aksum University will be offering a number of scholarships for top quality applicants. UniWater is excited to help Aksum University to get this program established as soon as possible.

Every year, PPI Solutions holds a symposium for the benefit of their partnering investment firms.  This year, they generously donated the proceeds from the symposium registration fees to UniWater in support of our general operating funds.  These funds are gratefully acknowledged and will support travel expenses to Egypt as we develop the Terms of Reference for funding for a regional Field School at the Desert Research Centre in Cairo.  This Field School is anticipated to serve as a practical, hands-on training school for Hydrogeology programs in all of Egypt, and possibly the whole Middle East.  The Field School is expected to begin training of students in 2020.

Robert Siegrist, James McKinley and Rebecca Parzen have generously donated their module on Decentralized Wastewater Treatment and Reuse to UniWater’s program.  This set of lectures was developed by Dr. Robert Siegrist at the Colorado School of Mines, to serve as a Master’s level course on decentralized wastewater treatment and reuse applicable to rural areas in the USA.  Jim McKinley and Rebecca Parzen, former graduate students of Dr. Siegrist, subsequently adapted the curriculum for a Master’s course at The University of San Simon, in Cochabamba, Bolivia.  Changes to the original curriculum included a larger focus on technologies available in developing countries and translating the course into Spanish.  The latest version of this curriculum, for use by UniWater has been translated back into English and continues to prioritize decentralized wastewater technologies that are applicable to developing countries.

UniWater Education Limited.

We are pleased to share our newly released professionally designed annual report for 2017 which includes a message from the director, the year in review, annual achievements, financial updates and looking forward – to next year and beyond.

UniWater Education’s 2017 Annual Report (PDF)

Many thanks go out to Robert Bruce who has compiled a number of test questions for our borehole drilling module.  Every donation of time is much appreciated.  These are the things that make our program enriched – when people share their experience with others learning the trade.

We are pleased to share our newly released professionally designed annual report for 2016 which includes a message from the director, the year in review, annual achievements, financial updates and looking forward – to next year and beyond.

UniWater Education’s 2016 Annual Report (PDF)

Courses offered:

• Low-­cost sanitation
• Constructing safe and sustainable groundwater wells
• Agricultural adaptations for climate change: rain water harvesting and irrigation water management approaches
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning
• Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) for monitoring and evaluation
• Geographic Information System (GIS) introduction
• Quantum Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Courses start in January, please see details for more information: Mzuzu University Workshop SC 2016-2017.pdf.

While Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania is all set to start their first program in their MSc in Hydrogeology and Water Resources Management, the program may be stalled due to a lack of scholarships for students.  There is an abundance of students registered for the program, but without scholarships they are unable to register for the classes.  If the minimum number of students (five) have not registered by the end of October, the program will be cancelled for this year.  Each student requires a scholarship of $5,000US for each of two years.  Donors will receive an immediate receipt, which is tax-deductible in Canada. Please donate here if you are able.

We are very happy to announce that the first set of boxes (containing books) sent from Calgary, Canada have arrived in Morogoro, Tanzania! See the image below for a visual summary of the journey the boxes took to reach their destination. A big thanks again to the volunteers (left) who took park in the Camel Caravan! – our method of identifying books/equipment from places of donation and finding volunteers to transport them to the African Universities taking part in our program. Learn more on our Camel Caravan page.