1. In an enlightening discussion, key WHaTeR consortium members explain their study into water harvesting
technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa, which could signifcantly improve agricultural production in dry regions
By what criteria can the sustainability of
water harvesting technologies (WHTs)
be evaluated?
We carefully consider three aspects
at all times: environmental, social and
economic sustainability.
Sustainability in WHTs needs to incorporate
ease of use and adaptability to the changing
needs and conditions of users. WHTs have
developed a range of benefits; although they
were originally intended to supply water for
agricultural production, they have evolved
to include supplies for biogas production,
livestock and domestic consumption. It is
important to minimise the negative impacts
of WHTs on upstream and downstream users.
WHTs contribute to food security and poverty
alleviation through, for example, increased
yields resulting from soil quality improvement
and soil water-holding capacity enhancement.
Their sustainability can be evaluated by
increased crop yield, improved soil humidity
and fertility, and increased adaptation and
adoption rates of the technologies.
What types of expertise do the European
and African organisations involved in
WHaTeR bring to the project?
The organisations involved offer technological
expertise on WHT, pooling knowledge
between European and African researchers
and stakeholders; gathering and analysing
historical data including trends and evolution
of WHT, ensuring that we build on past
and existing knowledge.They also provide
academic and field-orientated insights into
improving WHT capacity, and expertise
on the socio-economic aspects and global
perspectives and meta-analysis of WHTs.
Working in a consortium means sharing
expertise and experience to reach a common
goal.This work cannot be efficient without
equal consideration of partner contributions.
The consortium is also a learning alliance;
we believe the world is a better place when
knowledge is shared!
Is the promotion of equality an important
aspect of the consortium’s work, and how
are you encouraging the empowerment
of minorities?
Women and children benefit from having WH
storage systems close to home as this eases
the burden of collecting water. In the South
African catchments, women are often the
leaders in establishing small gardens which
benefit from our work.
It is essential for the consortium to promote
equality, because these technologies
can improve the livelihoods of poor and
marginalised groups who can’t afford and
usually don’t have access to irrigation water.
How do you plan to disseminate your
project results to relevant parties?
We are coordinating a broad range of
dissemination methods.These consist of
journal articles and working papers; posters
for the scientific community; policy briefs,
brochures and guidelines for policy and
decision makers; progress reports and
factsheets for donors; and handbooks and
manuals for WH experts and extension staff.
Our website (http://whater.eu) also serves as
an important dissemination tool.
What are the expected long-term impacts
of WHaTeR?
WHTs have been highlighted by the
African Union, the Government of South
Africa and the EC as potential strategies
to increase water availability for domestic
and agricultural consumption. However, it
is important to understand the potential
effect that widespread upscaling of WHT
may have on the functioning and integrity
of river catchments; we still need to test the
assumption that agriculture, food security and
livelihoods will benefit from WHT.The short-
term benefits are clear, but their sustainability
and relevance in relation to other systems are
still being tested.
Ultimately, we aim to contribute to
increased food production through runoff
harvesting and supplementary irrigation,
increased food security, and improved
livelihoods of rural communities by
providing strengthened, more resilient
farming systems. Furthermore, we
would like to outline potential upscaling
mechanisms, based on the success stories
of previous WHTs; and, in the long term,
integrate robust and sustainable concepts in
the policies and practices of WHTs in Sub-
Saharan Africa.
Improving agricultural productivity
in Sub-Saharan Africa
whater
46 International innovation

2. Re-assessing
water
harvesting
technologies
WHaTeR is an international,
multidisciplinary project seeking
to maximise the benefits of rainfall
to farmers in rural regions across
Sub-Saharan Africa.The EU-Africa
collaboration will contribute to the
improvement of rural livelihoods and
food production in this vast region
A key strategic economic, social, cultural
and political goal for the entire continent of
Africa, and in particular for Sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA), is the reduction of hunger and poverty
through increased agricultural growth and
productivity. Several recent studies into water
management in SSA have concluded that
areas which rely solely on rainfall for farming
hold enormous potential for improvement
in practices in order to boost agricultural
productivity. In the face of highly variable
rainfall, frequent and lengthy dry spells and
the undesirable loss of water to evaporation,
surface runoff anddrainage, rainfed agricultural
practices are often unpredictable.
Various forms of water harvesting technologies
(WHTs) have been used for centuries, but in
response to the challenges faced by farmers
across SSA and elsewhere, groundbreaking
approaches are now being developed in order
to improve the efficacy of these technologies.
The latter includes the tailoring of their design
and usage to the environmental, economic and
demographic changes in recent decades.
An african-european partnership
Working towards an accurate assessment of
the water harvesting needs of the region is the
undertaking of the international collaborative
project: WHaTeR. This brief and straightforward
title stands for Water Harvesting Technologies
Revisited: Potentials for Innovations,
Improvements and Upscaling in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Led by the VU University Amsterdam,
under the management of Dr Denyse Snelder
and Mrs Sabina Di Prima, the project’s aim is to
contributetotheongoingdevelopmentofWHTs,
ensuring that these are strengthening rainfed
agriculture, rural livelihoods, food production
and food security in SSA in a way which is both
sustainable and sensitive to the needs and
desires of end-users. Along with universally
applicable research and development work,
WHaTeR is developing guidelines for WHTs in
different environmental and socio-economic
settings, focusing on specific sites in Burkina
Faso, Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Africa.
WHaTeR comprises field leaders from eight
institutions across Europe and Africa. Between
them, the researchers have an enormous
breadth of knowledge, skills and understanding,
and the success of the consortium has relied
upon a dynamic and energised culture of
cooperation and teamwork within the project.
A returnto indigenous practices
An important aspect of WHaTeR’s working
method involves making sure that local
expertise and practices are not ignored, as
Professor Graham Jewitt and PhD researcher
Lauren Bulcock from the School of Bioresources
Engineering and Environmental Hydrology at
the University of KwazuluNatal, South Africa,
explain: “Local knowledge and traditional
technologies were often more in touch with
uncertain weather and changing climate
patterns than current practices; for example,
customs such as planting after the first rains
can be more beneficial than selecting pre-
determined planting dates”. The WHaTeR team
believes that the understanding of traditional
methods of water harvesting is a prerequisite for
technology improvement providing the basis for
context-specific state-of-the-art technologies.
The expectation is an increase in the
effectiveness of WHTs but also related farming
practices such as conservation agriculture,
The WHaTeR projectteam
www.researchmedia.eu 47
whater

3. WHaTeR
Water Harvesting Technologies
Revisited: Potentials for
Innovations, Improvements and
Upscaling in Sub-Saharan Africa
OBJECTIVES
To contribute to the development of
water harvesting technologies that are
sustainable under dynamic global and
regional pressures of current trends and
that strengthen rain-fed agriculture,
rural livelihoods and food production and
security in Sub-Saharan Africa.
PARTNERS
VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
(coordinating institute)
Arba Minch University, Ethiopia
Institute for Environment and Agricultural
Research (INERA), Burkina Faso
Newcastle University, UK
Sokoine University, Tanzania
Southern and Eastern Africa Rainwater
Network (SEARNET), Kenya
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm
University, Sweden
University of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
FUNDING
EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) –
contract no. 266360
CONTACT
Dr Denyse Snelder
Project Coordinator
VU University Amsterdam
Buitenveldertselaan 3-7
1082 VA Amsterdam
The Netherlands
T +31 91 527 7457
E d.j.r.m.snelder@vu.nl
http://whater.eu
Dr Denyse J Snelder holds a PhD in
Physical Geography at the University of
Toronto in Canada, and has been a senior
specialist in sustainable land management
at the VU University Amsterdam in
The Netherlands since 2009. Her main
interests are in the fields of natural resource
management, land use transition, soil and
water conservation in tropical regions.
with the ultimate goal of safeguarding SSA
agriculture against the threats and uncertainties
of a changing global climate.
Consulting End-Users
Rather than implementing changes to farming
practices in a prescriptive, top-down manner,
the researchers at WHaTeR have been eager
to confer with end-users at every possible
juncture. Dr Jetske Bouma from the Institute
for Environmental Studies, VU University
Amsterdam, highlights the novel aspects of these
efforts: “What makes the work exciting is that
we are really asking the farmers what type of
investments inWHT and agricultural productivity
enhancement they would prefer to see”.
As part of this process, the researchers have
made every effort to understand why, in certain
areas, uptake of the technology has hitherto
been limited. Studies have indicated that the
economic benefits of WHTs clearly outweigh
the costs, and as such Bouma and her fellow
researchers are investigating what other factors
drive reticence to adopt the technologies. Again,
the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature
of the consortium offers extra weight to these
efforts, enabling WHaTeR’s research findings
to be as relevant and appropriate as possible,
ensuring a meaningful dialogue with SSA farmers
that is sensitive to local customs and beliefs.
improving agricultural
productivity
The meta-analysis of the peer-reviewed
literature on the subject carried out by WHaTeR
shows that WHTs have a significant benefit on
improving crop yields, particularly in years which
demonstrate below average rainfall. However,
whilst stressing the importance of WHTs in
improving the agricultural productivity of SSA,
there is an acceptance amongst the researchers
that the technologies cannot achieve this goal
single-handedly. “Crop yield improvements are
only significant,” explains Bouma, “if additional
investments are also made in the use of
fertilisers.” Given the lack of secure, timely rain
and appropriate irrigation, fertiliser use in SSA
typically has a minimal impact on raising crop
yields, and nitrogenous fertilisers can even have
an adverse effect, burning crops and damaging
growth. In addition to their work on WHTs,
WHaTeR is also paying attention to improving
nutrients management via both mineral and
organic fertilisers, and they hope to integrate
these improvements with upgrades in water
harvesting systems.
Dr Korodjouma Ouattara, Institute for
Environment and Agricultural Research
(INERA), Burkina Faso, highlights some of
the further issues afflicting the region: “The
rate of fertiliser use is less than 10 kg/ha in
SSA, although in this region soil nutrient
mining cropping systems resulted in crop yield
decreases. The use of improved crop variety is
also low”. This situation indicates that there is
room for agricultural productivity improvement
including water resources management for
agriculture, organic and mineral fertilisation
and the use of improved seeds.
‘africaturns green’ documentary
WHaTeR’s attempts to raise awareness on water
harvesting and disseminate its research to a
large audience are set to receive a huge boost
when the sites and work of Sokoine University
of Agriculture, their Tanzanian partner, feature
in a forthcoming documentary by ‘Africa Turns
Green’. Dr Adane Abebe Awass, from the Water
Technology Institute, Arba Minch University,
Ethiopia, is keen to stress the excitement of the
group regarding these dissemination activities:
“Water harvesting offers numerous benefits to
the farming community and this documentary
could help in sharing the ideas of the project to a
larger audience, both nationally and regionally”.
There is hope that this could result in improved
uptake and upscaling of WHTs.
The Long-Term Impact
Looking ahead, the team’s efforts are set to
substantially improve farming practices for a
huge number of Africans. As Issa Ouedraogo
and Timothy Karpouzoglou – postdoctoral
researchers, funded by WHaTeR, at Stockholm
Resilience Centre – highlight, the benefits will
be broad-ranging: “Overall, the long-term
impacts of WHaTeR could be increased food
security, reductions in poverty and good water
governance in SSA”. Within this goal, Snelder
and her colleagues hope to contribute to a
wider understanding of how policy, governance
as well as technological and socio-economic
factors can influence the upscaling of WHTs.
In this way, the researchers hope to generate
a clear picture of how agricultural productivity
can be increased on a farm-by-farm basis, in
a way which is both profitable and consistent
with the desires of local farmers.
A community pond on rangeland in Ethiopia. Half moon technologies in harvested field in Burkina Faso.
48 International innovation
Intelligence