Pan Africa workshop cum training on Development of Environmental Monitoring Network Using SMART and Affordable Systems

A four-day pan-Africa training programme was held in Addis Ababa titled “Development of Environmental Monitoring Network Using SMART and Affordable Systems”. The programme was conducted jointly by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MEFCC), Ethiopia. A total of 37 participants attended the training programme. 16 participants from various attended the training programme, and these included officials from various governmental departments including Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MEFCC), Awash Basin Authority, Addis Ababa Environmental Protection Authority, Rift Valley Lakes Basin Authority, Ethiopia Environment and Forest Research Institute, Central Statistical Agency and Ethiopian Standards Institute (ESA) participated in the training programme. 10 participants were from other African countries including Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Malawi, Zanzibar, Swaziland and Egypt. The remaining 11 attendees were media representatives from various TV, newspaper and radio channel of Ethiopia. 

The workshop cum training programme that started on 14th August was started by the welcome note by Mr.MehariWondamagegn (Director General, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ethiopia) followed by an opening address by the Honorable State Minister, Honorable State Minister, Mr.WordiHushim. This was followed by a short address by Mr. Chandra Bhushan (Deputy Director General, Centre for Science and Environment, India) on the “SMART and Affordable monitoring – Future of environmental monitoring” and the initiative undertaken by CSE in this area.

Post inaugural session, the training started with a session by Mr.Nivit Kumar yadav (Sr. Programme Manager, CSE) who gave a quick brief about CSE and the work it is doing as well as the initiatives it has undertaken in the past years. 

Throughout the duration of the training, various topics were covered - like environmental quality monitoring, protocol for environmental quality monitoring, SMART and Affordable environmental quality monitoring and its comparison to the conventional monitoring, regulatory approach towards SMART and affordable monitoring, experience sharing between various African countries, preparation for water sampling and field monitoring, data management and presentation of environmental quality data, and reportpreparation.

Besides this, there was one demonstration session where the participants were shown affordable water testing kits and how they can be used for in-situ analysis, as well as a site visit was arranged for the participants so they know how an SMART equipment can be used in-situ to test the water quality.

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