Improving Integrated Water Resources Management in Somalia

After years of civil war, Somalia is currently in the process of re-building water institutions and water infrastructure to provide necessary water services to its growing population. Water resources are scarce in this predominantly arid country, and available surface waters rely heavily on inflow from neighboring Ethiopia. The Shabelle River, a vital source of water for local agriculture and the country's food production, is one of the two major river systems.

Implementing the Strategic Action Plan for the Shabelle River Basin

To identify and address the significant water management challenges in the Shabelle River Basin, adelphi facilitated the development of a Basin Diagnostic (BD) and a Strategic Action Plan (SAP) in a previous project (“Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Somalia”). To support the implementation of selected activities from the SAP this current project was initiated by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) together with the federal Somali Ministry of Energy and Water Resources (MoEWR). In particular, the project aimed at promoting coordination of water issues across different sectors and administrative levels within the federal and state levels of Somalia as well as developing selected technical capacity development measures.

How did adelphi support the process?

To help the Federal Government of Somalia to implement IWRM governance structures across the country, adelphi, in coordination with the MoEWR, developed IWRM training materials that will be used by local trainers to facilitate IWRM trainings in the different federal states. These training materials consist of several training modules on water sector coordination and river basin planning. In addition, an IWRM Training Guidelines Handbook was drafted that provides information on key IWRM principles and planning processes, the current state of IWRM implementation in Somalia, didactical tools to facilitate workshop preparation, as well as further resources that can be used by trainers or workshop participants to further develop their IWRM competencies.

Additionally, the project supported the development of Terms of References (ToRs) for selected technical projects in the water sector, as prioritized in the SAP. For instance, adelphi held one training session at Mogadishu to develop the ToRs for updating the rating curve for the hydrological station at Beledweyne, which is situated near the Ethiopian-Somalian border and measures the transboundary water flow that originates in the Ethiopian part of the Shabelle basin. The detailed ToRs were drafted jointly with staff members of the MoEWR and state governments in a hands-on training session to develop the necessary ToR preparation skills and further advance the implementation of the SAP for the Shabelle Basin.