News & Events

Everything you need to know about water and migration
- Interview with an expert (series) Blog Irrigation in drought-hit Gujarat. Photo: Hamish John Appleby / IWMI Most of us know someone who has migrated. Maybe a relative moved to a new country to be closer to family, or left in search of different job opportunities. There are around 272 million migrants in the world today, which is around 3.5 percent of the ...more

How to monitor effectively when the water balance drops
- Blog The case of Ziway-Shala, Ethiopia Alemseged Tamiru Haile and Eva Ludi (International Water Management Institute, IWMI) Tabea Donauer, Tobias Siegfried and Silvan Ragettli (hydrosolutions ltd.) Demelash Wondimagegnehu Goshime (Arba Minch Water Technology Institute) Measuring the water level in the Ajuri River in Ethiopia. Photo: Maheder Haileselassie / IWMI Rapidly increasing demand and uncontrolled use of water is threatening the water balance of the Ziway-Shala ...more

Can citizen science help to fill hydrology data gaps in Ethiopia?
- Blog Likimyelesh Nigussie, Research Officer, IWMI and Alemseged Tamiru Haile, Researcher – Hydrology/Hydrological Modeling, IWMI Farmer Mercy Wambui measuring rain water on her farm. Photo: CIAT / Georgina Smith Agriculture is the mainstay of Ethiopia’s economy, contributing 37% of gross domestic product (GDP). Growth of the sector depends on efficient and sustainable use of natural resources such as water and land. But, ...more

Initial Research Highlights Importance of Irrigation for Ethiopian Farmers During COVID-19
- IWMI in the news Sewagegn, a local smallholder farmer, and Gebeyaw, a data collector, set up Sewagegn's solar powered pump to irrigate her backyard garden in Danghesta, Amhara region of Ethiopia. Photo Credit: Mulugeta Ayene/WLE Agriculture sustains the Ethiopian economy, and access to irrigation here is critical for food security. Now, in the wake of COVID-19, the World Food Programme estimates ...more

How to accelerate and scale inclusive water access in Ethiopia
- Learn more: To learn more about IWMI’s efforts to facilitate farmer-led irrigation, attend a series of interactive webinars on June 11th and July 9th hosted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the World Bank, the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, and the Global Water ...more

Challenge winner moves forward with IoT to develop world first database
- By David Wiberg, Hydro-Informatics Leader (HIL) Photo: Futurepump A network of solar irrigation pumps equipped with sensors that connect to the Internet will potentially provide a world first database of groundwater usage in sub-Saharan Africa. Because of high rainfall variability African farmers are becoming more reliant on groundwater, the only reliable source of water for irrigation. IWMI have developed an online water ...more

Simulating trade-offs in the water-energy-food nexus
- The case of the Omo-Turkana and Zambezi basins Patience Mukuyu Omo-Turkana basin. Photo: Fritz Kleinschroth / ETH Zurich When it comes to resource management, the nexus between water, energy and food (WEF) is well recognized, where competing demands on resources such as water have to be managed. Nonetheless, creating models and simulations to predict how one factor, such as hydropower generation, will ...more

Reuters: More deals, less conflict? Cross-border water planning key, report warns
- New report suggests national leaders make water security a priority now, link water policy to other national policies, from agriculture to trade, and put in place water-sharing institutions early. Working toward better shared water management is particularly crucial as climate change brings more drought, floods and other water extremes, said Alan Nicol, who is based in Ethiopia for the International Water ...more

Thomson Reuters: It’s time to look underground for climate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa
- While we all know groundwater is a key water resource for farmers, small communities and larger cities alike in sub-Saharan Africa, it is largely missing from existing analysis of climate change impacts on water. Yet, Cape Town, which was greatly supported by groundwater development in its struggle to push back Day Zero when the city was projected to run out ...more

When small is beautiful – but not spectacular
- Taking stock of a widespread water intervention in Africa Woman fetching water from a small reservoir close to a pumping point. Photo: Hamish John Appleby / IWMI As African countries respond to worsening natural disasters, there is a risk that quick fixes may come at the expense of long-lasting solutions. Such appears to be the case with small reservoirs across Africa, ...more

East Africa