AER-M2, February 2017: Workshop on sustainable water resource management in the Rwenzori region at Mountains of the Moon University
In mid-February 2017 within the second AER-meeting the Workshop I Sustainable water resource management in the Rwenzori region jointly organised by members from MMU and BOKU took place during four days and was facilitated by Dr. Andreas Melcher and Phillipp Dietrich.
Day1: Was designed to detect suitable methodologies for the analyses of water resources and to elaborate suitable water resource management strategies for the Rwenzori region by the participants in a class room session with presentations and group discussions.
Day 2 – In-field session: The field visit brought us as a case study upstream of the Mpanga River northwest of Fort Portal to the base of the Rwenzori Range. There the human impacts (sand and gravel mining, …) on the water body are relatively low. Further downstream the Mpange river in the city of Fort Portal we did another sampling at the heavy polluted side close to the abattoir analysing its impacts on the water body.
Generally, the Mpanga River flows from the Eastern flanks of the Rwenzori range via the Lake George into another of the greater lakes, namely Lake Edward (southwest of Fort Portal). The Lake Edward then is the source of the Semliki River, which flows via Congo (in the western side of the Rwenzori Range) towards Lake Albert in the north of the Rwenzori Region were the last testing area was located. Different locations upstream, middle stream and at Lake Albert were selected for testing the methods in practices. Also the difference between lake and river, heavy polluted and low impact were elaborated during the day.
Day 3 – Class room session and case study reflection/discussion: This day was used to reflect the insights/results from the field-day, to conduct a synthesis on the lessons learned and to schedule the further steps, such as the elaboration of the adjusted Rwenzori water body protocol template.
Day 4: Visit of the Organic Kahangi estate with students from MMU BSc Agricultural Sciences to learn from the implementation of the Organic principles on a large estate.