Djibouti national training workshop on the characteristics and monitoring of watersheds closed today

Tadjourah, Djibouti, 20-06-2014: A five-day training workshop on the characteristics and monitoring of watersheds in the Republic of Djibouti closed this morning with a certificate hand-over ceremony presided over by the Governor of Tadjourah, HEM Abdoulmalik Mohamed Banoita, at Le Golfe Hotel of Tadjourah.

This five-day workshop gathered technicians and engineers from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water, Fisheries, and Livestock, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the Ministry of Equipment and Transport, and the Djiboutian Armed Forces in order to train them in collecting and processing information that will allow them to draw maps and hydrological monitoring of watersheds.

Mr. Goumaneh Awaleh from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure speaking on behalf of the fourteen participants hailing thanked IGAD Inland Water Resources Management Program (INWRMP) and the Ministry of Djibouti Agriculture for putting together the seminar.

“First, it was a brilliant idea to bring this training to this little and beautiful coastal town of Tadjourah so, we, the participants, focus on the training only. I would also like to highlight that this was a very successful training seminar that will help us deliver more reliable data on watersheds thanks to the tools we learnt about during these five days. Thank you to Dr. Jean Gassini for his exceptional training skills and encouragement”, Mr. Goumaneh said.

Dr. Jean Gassini, Projects Director at Global Consulting and Trainer found the group very interested in the various types of techniques they “worked on such as the spatial analysis, the Digital Elevation Model (DEM), the Geographical information System (GIS) during the workshop”. According the Trainer the techniques learnt will “allow the participants to better characterize and follow the various watersheds in the Republic of Djibouti”. “Practically speaking, during this workshop we characterized several watersheds, like the one of Ambouli River flowing through Djibouti City. Collecting viable information leads to informed and sound decisions at the political level”, he concluded.

To Program Manager of Natural Resources of IGAD, Mr Daher Elmi, the techniques learned should be applied in the day-to-day work and knowledge shared with colleagues at and across ministerial levels. “I hope this workshop will contribute to making the Djibouti national water database more viable and more exhaustive in view for the IGAD trans-boundary water database that is being developed. We will kindly follow on that with partner Djibouti Ministries”, he said.