Page 22 - GESI Framework

Gender Equality and social inclusion framework

Training the next generation of groundwater specialists in the Sahel

As climate change diminishes the availability of surface Exploring these shared challenges and opportunities
water in Africa, groundwater has emerged as a vital across the six countries helped build trust and
untapped resource. But, in the Sahel, a global hotspot for cooperation. “We share certain basins, the climate, socio-
climate change and one of the poorest regions in the economic contexts, and the unavailability of water
world, limited knowledge about groundwater resources resources,” Dr. Faye says. “It was in our interest to pool
hampers efforts to develop strategies to cope with water our resources and create a unifying program” that will
scarcity. Nor are there enough hydrogeologists trained in allow universities to exchange students and skills which
the sustainable management of this resource. can be beneficial for all countries.”

CIWA is playing a pivotal role by convening stakeholders She said that CIWA can continue playing “a decisive role in
around the goal of increasing the cadre of Sahelian facilitating meetings between training institutions in the field
groundwater specialists and improving their skill level. It of water resources in different countries, creating
supported a weeklong roundtable discussion in March 2022 in frameworks for reflection to improve knowledge, identifying
Nouakchott, Mauritania, which brought together academics shortcomings, and trying to find solutions together.”
responsible for training groundwater specialists in six countries
to identify the main gaps in training and forge solutions. Roundtable attendees were enthused about the proposed
master’s degree program, expected to take three years to
The countries—Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, develop and implement, to tap into the region’s valuable
and Senegal—made a potentially transformative decision to groundwater resources. “It is an extraordinary idea,” she
both improve the quality of undergraduate training to retain says. “It will be something great, really fantastic.”
students interested in groundwater studies and to create a
common master’s degree program in hydrogeology.
Because many Sahelians pursuing careers in groundwater
must attend universities abroad to obtain advanced degrees
and may remain overseas to work, a homegrown master’s
degree program could reverse that trend and build up
regional expertise.
“This roundtable made it possible to deepen the discussions,
share experiences from each country, fill in the gaps, and
find solutions,” said Dr. Seynabou Cisse Faye, a senior
hydrogeologist and associate professor who is responsible
for hydrogeology training in the Department of Geology at
the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar in Senegal.
The challenge of increasing the number of women in the
geology department drew Dr. Faye to the field of
groundwater. “Geology was not a very attractive subject for
women, and there was practically no enthusiasm for training
women,” she recalls.

“I said to myself, ‘Why are there not
enough women?’ That is what steered
me into the field,”

says Dr. Faye, whose academic research topics include the
vulnerability and pollution of aquifer systems in urban,
mining, and agricultural areas and the contribution of
isotopic tools to the study of pollution. She eventually rose
to become head of the geology department from 2017 to
2021 and now leads the master’s program in
hydrogeology. She is also the scientific manager of the
department’s hydrochemistry laboratory.
Dr. Faye saw first-hand how hard it has been to recruit
students interested in becoming groundwater specialists at her
university. “Our big problem right now is training,” she says.
Because of limited university resources, about five times as
many students apply to the hydrogeology program as can
be enrolled—far less than is necessary to meet the region’s
groundwater resource management needs. And, as became
evident at the roundtable, the quality of training
opportunities across the Sahel is spotty, leaving some
students unable to train in the field of earth sciences and
thus acquire basic geology skills or obtain internships or jobs ©Jorge Trevino / CIWA - View of the Chari River from the LCBC building, February 2022

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