Mwinyi to grace Z’bar water conference today 

ZANZIBAR President Hussein Mwinyi is today expected to officiate the opening of the ‘Zanzibar Water Conference (ZaWAC), the organizing team has said.

According to a statement availed to the media by Ms Mwanajuma Majid Abdullah-Deputy Principal Secretary, Zanzibar Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals, the conference participants  will have an  opportunity  to share knowledge,  learn and interact  between three main actors in the water sector for full realization.

She said that ZaWAC is a flagship event for the Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals (MoWEM) and is convened in collaboration with Global Water Partnership Tanzania, SADC Groundwater Management Institute, University of Dar es Salaam and IHE-Delft.

“During the conference, practitioners, policy makers, researchers and academicians from across the world will gather to share ideas, network, collaborate, learn and inspire each other,” Ms Abdullah said.

According to the programme, keynote presentation will be made by Dr Valentine Ochanda (The Blue Economy discourse) while other presentations include ‘Biodegradable Polymer-Based Organoclays for Wastewater Treatment Process: An Alternative to Conventional Surfactant-Based Organoclays’, and ‘Towards Safe Toilet Emptying in Unplanned Settlement Areas for Groundwater Contamination Control: A case of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’.

Other expected papers are ‘Sensitivity Analysis of Modelling Inputs in SWAT and HBV Hydrologic Models in Simulating Historical Stream Flows’; ‘Rapid Assessment of Groundwater Quality in Zanzibar (Unguja and Pemba)’, and ‘Cost of water transportation to mitigate shortages in semi-arid regions of Tanzania’.

‘Smart Water-Food-Energy Nexus-Based Power Infrastructure for Enhancing Reliable and Flexible Rural Electrification’; ‘Social Auditing and Corporate Sustainability of Water Companies in Kenya’; and ‘Integrated water resources management using EPANET software for proper water distribution network in Zanzibar’ are other presentations.

Also in the list of presentations are ‘Crop water requirement for Zanzibar in Tanzania state up to 2100 using high-resolution climate simulation from cordex regional climate models’; and ‘GIS based groundwater potential and vulnerability assessment and mapping for domestic use in Ruvubu river basin, Burundi’.