Page 8 - CIWA Water Data Revolution Overview Report

Water Data Revolution: Closing the data gap for transboundary water in Africa

management. That is, sustainable transboundary water management requires timely, pragmatic
decisions based on adequate information on the status of resources, historical trends, and future
availability. This information, such as measurements on rainfall, stocks and flows, and
groundwater, are key to making decisions to improve water quality, water use, long-term
environmental impacts, and local and regional economies.

Many of the most water vulnerable places are also the most hydrologically data poor. In Africa,
hydrometeorological and agricultural monitoring networks are often sparse and have large
latency, making them impractical for real-time decision-making. To make up for a shortage of
water data, a consequence of limited in-situ monitoring networks, many water managers need
better access to remotely sensed data acquired from satellites. Where the need for information
is arguably greatest, the data collection infrastructure and human capacity to monitor and

forecast hazards is generally low because of a decline in hydro-meteorological monitoring
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networks over the past 30 years and an ongoing lack of investment in infrastructure and training.
A key limitation at the national, sub regional and continental levels is the paucity of data on water
resources. This limitation is linked to inadequate human capacity for the collection, assessment,
and dissemination of data on water resources. There is, therefore, an urgent need for improved
data collection, better tools for water resources monitoring, and enhanced cooperation between
countries sharing transboundary water resources.

Figure 1 summarizes some of the key challenges such as insufficient data coverage, incomplete
historical records, high data collection costs, and barriers to cross-border cooperation, across
Africa.

Figure 1: Key challenges in transboundary water data management in Africa include limited data coverage, gaps in
historical records, high costs of data collection, and difficulties in cross-border cooperation.

Historically, water data collection relied heavily on ground-based methods, including the
installation of hydrometeorological meters and rain gauges at specific locations. Remote

5 Lorenz, C., & Kunstmann, H. (2012). The hydrological cycle in three state-of-the-art reanalyses: Intercomparison and performance analysis.
Journal of Hydrometeorology, 13 (5), 1397-1420.
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