REACH global research Programme

Some governments are so generous, they provide large-scale funds to support researchers which is not only enables them to conduct sound researches, but, helps to translate the research findings to solve global problems. One of such kind of project is REACH research project, which aims to provide water security for the poor, particularly in developing countries in Asia and Africa.  Some times ago, at the project inauguration  time, I introduced it here in my blog. e.g. Here.  

The reason of this blog post is to express my happiness to be elected as the member of the Junior Global Advisory Panel (JGAP) for such a huge global research project. It will be an interesting avenue to see what I, as hydrologist, can provide to solve real water problems, and at the same time try to learn  from the world class experts in the field of water and water security. As a part of disseminating the effort of REACH, you will see some posts regards the field and research activities of REACH here in my blog. The list of Junior Global Advisory Panels (JGAP) selected along with me are listed here. 

World Water Week in Stockholm

I believe that any effort towards hydrological science as physical/basic science has to contribute towards solving the real water resource problem that the millions of people faces everyday globally. This year Water Week in Stockholm as focused on the global water crisis and issues regarding water availability and uses. The theme was "Water for Sustainable Growth". Anything that relates water and development, or even life, is the theme of the conference. There are two reasons to write this post:

• The conference has plenty of interesting presentations online for various topics related to water and development in general.  One can browse through the themes and enjoy the topic of interest. It can be found at SIWI media hub.
• REACH has contributed to the conference. Dr Katrina Charles and Dr Rob Hopes of REACH program presented to the conference and you can find their slides here and here, respectively. 

"Poverty reduction in Ethiopia in the last decade have been closely associated with unusually reliable rainfall"

Last week  in Addis Ababa EGU conference, I met Professor Simon Dadson who is the co-investigator of this new and large (from 2015-2022)  project called REACH . The project is funded by the UK government and hosted by oxford university school of Geography and the Environment, aiming to conduct water security and poverty issues in three countries:  Kenya, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.   This is really the beginning of  interesting effort, and I hope  it will accrue wealth of  knowledge and understanding on the clear  relationship between water resources availability (security) and level of poverty. 

While I will follow their efforts and works closely in this regards, at the moment, browsing  the project website I have seen this interesting statement "Major reductions in poverty [in Ethiopia] in the last decade have been closely associated with unusually reliable rainfall".  It is true that small land-hold rain-fed agriculture farmer in Ethiopia depends mainly on nature of rainfall. However, I never noticed this contribution to the recent 'poverty reduction' process. In fact the climatological drought we have this year due to El Nino is  highly (directly) contributing to agricultural drought and famine.  

Understanding the rainfall patterns, or be able to forecast it, and estimation of  its effect on hydrological and agricultural drought is crucial step. If possible,  hydrological forecasting for future short time such as for one/two week(s) would really be very interesting challenge that I would like to do in my academic career life!