UNESCO organizes training on transboundary water management for water professionals from Afghanistan and Iran

From 22-24 January 2018, UNESCO organized a training on transboundary water management for a group of 30 water professionals from Afghanistan and Iran, AVA Diplomatic reports.

The training was held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, as part of a series of tailor-made regional trainings by the International Hydrological Programme (UNESCO-IHP) on Transboundary Water Management. UNESCO-IHP has held similar training workshops for different regions across the world.

The training provided advanced learning on transboundary water resource management with case studies and lessons learned from different regions in the world, including the Senegal River Basin, the Orange River and the Mekong. Renowned international experts made presentations about topics such as international water law principles, data management, environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA), and on climate change and its impact on transboundary cooperation.

The Paris-based training was followed by a two-day field visit on 25-26 Jan 2018 to Germany and the Netherlands, where the participants were able to see how those two countries manage their transboundary waters together. The group of Afghan and Iranian water professionals visited several bilateral water projects between Germany and the Netherlands, and were able to discuss practical issues regarding transboundary water cooperation with their European colleagues.

This training was organized with the generous financial contribution of the Federal Government of Germany and the Government of the Netherlands, and with technical support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education.