💡 Unleashing Africa’s Engineering Potential: Charting a Course for Inclusive Growth and Prosperity | A column by FAEO President
Kazawadi Papias Dedeki (Pr. Eng, ACIArb, MIPM, CIPM, Accredited Mediator, Arbitrator and Certified Circular Economy Expert)
FAEO President & Chairman of WFEO Committee on Anti-Corruption
Africa’s engineering capacity for economic development varies across nations, with countries like South Africa and Nigeria making notable progress. However, challenges such as the skills gaps, inadequate infrastructure, and political instability persist. The sufficiency of engineering capacity in Africa to drive economic development demands targeted investments, skills development, and regional collaboration.
As Africa’s population burgeons, the demand for services outstrips the existing engineering capacity. The continent grapples with a shortage of skilled engineers, inadequate infrastructure, education disparities, and resource limitations. Addressing these issues requires sustained investments, international collaboration, and a focus on sustainable solutions. These issues will be at the forefront of the UNESCO 9th Africa Engineering Week and 7th Africa Engineering Conference | 📺 Watch it livestream taking place at the CSIR Convention Centre, in Pretoria, South Africa from 25-29 September 2023.
📚 RIBAGUA - Vol 10 Issue 1 | WCCE Library Peek
RIBAGUA , Ibero-American Water Magazine , is a journal of the IAHR and the World Council of Civil Engineers ( WCCE ) that is focused on topics of special interest to the Ibero-American region and facilitates researchers, engineers and decision-makers related to water publish their works in Spanish and Portuguese.
Issue 1 of 2023 contains four articles on various topics of importance in Latin America. The first one, from Peru, presents experimental research related to vortices that may occur in water intakes, with important applications in dams. Criteria to classify the types of vortices, and conditions to prevent them are provided. The second article addresses the practical problems of measuring head losses caused by screens in large dams. In particular, the case of Salto Grande is introduced, between Argentina and Uruguay (the article comes from the latter country), which contributes significantly to the generation of energy in the Southern Cone. Third, a detailed comparison of data models based on precipitation-runoff processes is described, and the performance of models is exemplified with cases from basins in Uruguay. A research of utmost importance for all Iberoamerican basins. Finally, a novel methodology to track the effects of COVID-19 on wastewater from the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is explained in the fourth manuscript. Developed by AySA, Aguas y Saneamiento Argentinos by itself provides a freely available technology.
📯 Reversing Africa's infrastructure deficit requires the cooperation of engineers
Highlights of the 1st WCCE African Regional Summit in Abudja
Organized by our WCCE's continental Representative, Dr. Aishatu Umar, the First Regional Summit of the World Council of Civil Engineers was held from August 9th to 11th in Abuja, Nigeria. The Summit described the diversity both economical and political of Sub-Saharan Africa and its many challenges, among them, a blatant infrastructure deficit. The Summit was an effort to address different challenges due to either lacking or poor infrastructure - a major obstacle to economic growth and development in the region, as a lack of sufficient access to power, road networks, telecommunications, and efficient transportation hinders the flow of goods, services and information. Note that SDG 9 mandates the Development of quality, reliable, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure.
👀 Supercharging progress towards the SDGs | UN Peek
UNOPS experts explore how Geographic Information Systems could be the secret ingredient to accelerate sustainable development and tailor actions to community needs.
📜 G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration
We are One Earth, One Family, and we share One Future.
We, the Leaders of the G20, met in New Delhi on 9-10 September 2023, under the theme ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’. We meet at a defining moment in history where the decisions we make now will determine the future of our people and our planet. It is with the philosophy of living in harmony with our surrounding ecosystem that we commit to concrete actions to address global challenges.
📚 The Green Roads for Water (GR4W) | WCCE Library Peek
Roads and water are generally seen as enemies, with water responsible for most of the damage to roads, and roads being a major cause of problems such as erosion, waterlogging, flooding, and dust storms. This tension, however, can be reversed. The concept of Green Roads for Water (also known as ‘Green Roads’ or ‘roads for water’) places roads in the service of water and landscape management and climate resilience without sacrificing or diminishing their transport functions. With global investment in roads of US1-US2 trillion dollars per year, plus maintenance costs, the widespread adoption of Green Roads approaches can leverage investment at a transformative scale, making road development and maintenance a vital tool for achieving climate resilience, water security, and productive use of natural resources.
Green Roads for Water: Guidelines for Road Infrastructure in Support of Water Management and Climate Resilience, prepared by the WB Group, provides strategies to use roads for beneficial water management tailored to diverse landscapes and climates, including watershed areas, semiarid climates, coastal lowlands, mountainous areas, and floodplains. The underlying premise of Green Roads is therefore quite simple: designing roads to fit their natural and anthropomorphic contexts; minimize externalities; and balance preservation of the road, water resources, landscape, and soil resources will usually cost less than traditional protective resilience approaches and will produce more sustainable overall outcomes.
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