Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 4225–4232, 2012
www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/4225/2012/
doi:10.5194/hess-16-4225-2012
© Author(s) 2012. CC Attribution 3.0 License.
Hydrology and
Earth System
Sciences
A regional and multi-faceted approach to postgraduate water
education – the WaterNet experience in Southern Africa
L. Jonker
1
, P. van der Zaag
2,3
, B. Gumbo
4
, J. Rockstr
¨
om
5
, D. Love
6
, and H. H. G. Savenije
3
1
University of the Western Cape, Belville, South Africa
2
UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands
3
Water Resources section, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
4
Cap-Net UNDP, Pretoria, South Africa
5
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
6
WaterNet, Harare, Zimbabwe
Correspondence to: P. van der Zaag (p.vanderzaag@unesco-ihe.org)
Received: 11 February 2012 – Published in Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss.: 16 March 2012
Revised: 15 September 2012 – Accepted: 27 October 2012 – Published: 14 November 2012
Abstract. This paper reports the experience of a regional
network of academic departments involved in water educa-
tion that started as a project and evolved, over a period of
12 yr, into an independent network organisation. The paper
pursues three objectives. First, it argues that it makes good
sense to organise postgraduate education and research on
water resources on a regional scale and presents the Wa-
terNet experience as an example that a regional approach
can work. Second, it presents preliminary findings and con-
clusions that the regional approach presented by WaterNet
did make a contribution to the capacity needs of the region
both in terms of management and research capacity. Third,
it draws two generalised lessons from the WaterNet expe-
rience. Lesson one pertains to the importance of legitimate
ownership and an accountability structure for network effec-
tiveness. Lesson two is related to the financial and intellec-
tual resources required to jointly developing educational pro-
grammes through shared experience.
1 Introduction
Established in 2000 in response to the call by water ministers
of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
to boost the training of water professionals (Savenije and
Van der Zaag, 2000), WaterNet links 65 university depart-
ments and institutions in 15 countries in Southern and East-
ern Africa that share an interest and expertise in water-related
issues. Individually they do not command the broad field of
water resources management. By pooling their expertise they
are, however, able to cover the full range, from hydrology to
aquatic ecology, and from water supply and sanitation tech-
nologies to economics and law (Wright et al., 2001). In the
process the region moves away from concentrated expertise
to distributed expertise; from competition between centres of
excellence to cooperation, and from conformity to a diversity
of ideas.
As a network of institutions, WaterNet has created a
modality that offers a regional Masters programme in Inte-
grated Water Resources Management (IWRM). In addition
to the regional Masters programme, WaterNet also offers
short professional courses, carries out multidisciplinary wa-
ter research programmes, and organises annual regional wa-
ter symposia (Jonker and Van der Zaag, 2010).
WaterNet is premised on the idea that it makes good sense
to organise postgraduate education and research on water re-
sources on a regional scale. This is because water has a trans-
boundary dimension that: (i) poses delicate sharing ques-
tions, (ii) needs an approach that promotes a common un-
derstanding of what the real water-related issues are, (iii)
requires future water specialists speaking a common (wa-
ter) language, (iv) enhances mutual respect and can thus be
considered and investment in future peace (Van der Zaag,
2009a).
Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.
4226 L. Jonker et al.: The WaterNet experience in Southern Africa
The paper reports on a first attempt at evaluating the suc-
cess of WaterNet’s contribution to water education and re-
search in the SADC region. This it does by:
1. giving a description of WaterNet;
2. presenting preliminary findings of the success of Water-
Net in contributing to the capacity needs of the region;
3. presenting some findings on the research output facili-
tated by WaterNet.
The paper builds on two unpublished papers, Wright et
al. (2001) and Jonker and Van der Zaag (2010). This was
enhanced by data from various reports to the Annual General
Meeting, reports to the donors, an evaluation report by ex-
ternal evaluators, the Scopus publication database and some
data from a tracer study commissioned by the WaterNet Sec-
retariat.
2 Water Resources Management in Southern and
Eastern Africa
Economic and social development requires reliable access to
sufficient water sources of good quality. In regions where wa-
ter availability is uneven both in time and in space, there is
a need to effectively manage the water resources. Whereas
many people do not yet enjoy access to safe water supply
and basic sanitation, this may worsen in the absence of con-
certed action, as water is becoming scarcer (as measured in
per capita terms) and increasingly vulnerable due to migra-
tion of people, pollution, extreme climatic variability and cli-
mate change. Managing water resources has become more
critical than ever before.
Integrated Water Resources Management as an approach
to management water resources gained prominence after
the international conference on water in Dublin and the in-
ternational environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro in
1992. The Southern African Development Community (a re-
gional assemblage of states in Southern Africa similar to
the European Union) in its effort to promote regional inte-
gration and facilitating cooperative management of the re-
gion’s rivers, adopted the SADC Protocol on Shared Water-
courses in 1995. The effective development and management
of water resources in Southern and Eastern African coun-
tries was hampered by some institutional and legislative con-
straints as well as insufficient financial and human capac-
ity to implement programmes and activities that were con-
sistent with the IWRM concept; and thus the implementa-
tion of the protocol. Water management initiatives were typ-
ically split among different ministries. The fragmentation of
responsibilities among sectoral ministries and administrative
agencies hindered attempts to integrate water management
activities. The management of water was often executed by
government departments with little or no formal stakeholder
participation. The cost of managing water was often coming
from general government taxes because cost recovery was
not aimed for. As budgets dwindled, maintenance of wa-
ter infrastructure was disregarded. Legal instruments were
often fragmented and some countries had water allocation
systems that were intrinsically, or with the passage of time
had become, inequitable. Monitoring systems were weak and
constrained by insufficient human and technical capacity. Fi-
nally, ecological requirements were seldom considered (e.g.
Swatuk, 2005).
To address the above challenges, several Southern and
Eastern African countries have embarked on thorough wa-
ter sector reforms. With the aim to better coordinate water
management, legislation has been revised and administrative
and institutional changes have been introduced. Also, an ini-
tiative started to address the resulting human and institutional
capacity needs.
3 Capacity building needs for Integrated Water
Resources Management
Ten years ago, Wright et al. (2001) argued that IWRM not
only needed a favourable policy environment and institu-
tional and legal setting, but also, essentially, required ade-
quate understanding of the physical processes involved and
of the multiplicity of societal water needs and interests, as
well as effective decision-making that focuses not only the
supply and allocation of water, but also on the demand side.
Those implementing this new mode of water management
typically were thought to be teams of professionals trained
in a mix of relevant disciplines. It was considered essential
for decision-making processes that such teams would have
good disciplinary expertise, and be able to organise effective
communication among staff and between staff, stakeholders
and policy-makers, and thus facilitate meaningful informa-
tion exchange (Wright et al., 2001).
In order to address these requirements listed by Wright et
al. (2001), albeit partially, it was proposed to invest in hu-
man resources through developing dedicated capacity build-
ing programmes. It was further acknowledged and empha-
sised that universities needed to continue to train specialists
in relevant “conventional” water disciplines at undergraduate
and postgraduate levels, while ensuring that the university
curricula were kept up-to-date.
However, two constraints were identified. First, in South-
ern Africa the opportunities for postgraduate training in
water-related disciplines were few, which jeopardised the ex-
pertise requirement. Second, a new type of water resource
generalist was deemed necessary, for which in the year 2000
no suitable curriculum existed in Southern Africa.
This formed the basis for proposing a new postgraduate
programme in Integrated Water Resources Management that
would aspire to achieve two things: (1) through a broad foun-
dation curriculum would expose disciplinary trained 1st de-
gree holders to a wide spectrum of perspectives and to a
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 4225–4232, 2012 www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/4225/2012/
L. Jonker et al.: The WaterNet experience in Southern Africa 4227
common conceptual water language; (2) through a suitable
specialisation phase and a thesis research requirement, offer
students the possibility to either further deepen their special-
ist expertise or develop their generalist knowledge and skills.
The WaterNet initiative thus wished to produce sufficient
well-trained specialists as well as a new type of generalists in
water resources. The latter were viewed as the brokers within
the water sector, able to establish links between specialists in
sector departments. Such generalists were expected to con-
stitute the “middle-ground” in integrated water resources de-
velopment and management. They would, first, have a broad
understanding of central concepts of the key disciplines in-
volved, including hydrology, hydrogeology, chemistry and
engineering, but also ecology, resource economics, law and
management science, as well as disciplines relevant to the
transboundary dimension of water resources, such as inter-
national relations (Wright et al., 2001). These generalists
would be expected to translate these integrative concepts rel-
evantly and intelligibly to other (disciplinary) players. Refer-
ence can be made to bridging concepts such as “green” and
“blue” water, and “virtual” water. These generalists would
be equipped with the necessary skills to facilitate decision-
making processes. They would be proficient in team work,
communication, negotiation and conflict management, while
some would specialise in decision support systems (Wright
et al., 2001).
4 A short overview of the process of establishing
WaterNet
The WaterNet concept was prompted by the SADC-EU con-
ference on the Management of Shared River Basins held
in Maseru, Lesotho, in May 1997, when ministers respon-
sible for water of Southern Africa and Europe articulated
the urgent need to “level the playing field” between ripar-
ian countries and thus the need to prioritise capacity building
(Savenije and Van der Zaag, 2000).
The WaterNet initiative was presented at a large number of
conferences and fora in Southern Africa, including during the
SADC Water Weeks that were held in 11 countries in 1999
in preparation of the Southern African Vision for Water, Life
and Environment in the 21st Century. WaterNet was subse-
quently endorsed by SADC and acknowledged by the Global
Water Partnership. A large number (44) of institutions (uni-
versity departments, training and research institutes involved
in different aspects of water) were invited to express their in-
terest. Eighteen institutions responded positively. WaterNet
was formally founded during a workshop held in March 2000
in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, when the 18 founding member
institutions agreed that WaterNet would be a membership or-
ganisation, operating through an annual general meeting, a
steering committee, a secretariat and a Trust fund (Wright et
al., 2001). By 2012, the membership of WaterNet had grown
to over 65 member institutions from 15 Southern and Eastern
Africa countries. WaterNet has been generously funded by
the Dutch government through DGIS and the Swedish gov-
ernment through Sida.
In Victoria Falls it was decided that WaterNet would ful-
fil its capacity building mandate through the creation of a
Masters in Integrated Water Resources Management, the de-
velopment of short professional development courses and the
establishment of a research programme focussing on the in-
tegrative aspects of water management (Fig. 1).
5 The WaterNet Master Degree Programme in
Integrated Water Resources Management
The WaterNet Masters in Integrated Water Resources Man-
agement:
– is a general Master degree programme that offers a
broad range of courses relevant to Integrated Water Re-
sources Management; the intake is thus not limited to
graduates with an engineering or natural science back-
ground;
– is a regional programme, where several WaterNet mem-
ber institutions offer a limited number of course mod-
ules in the fields in which they have a comparative
strength (Wright et al., 2001).
The degree comprises a coursework component (12
months) and a research component (6 months). Originally
the coursework consisted of 10 modules in total , plus a cap-
stone module to mark the end of the coursework. The cap-
stone module is a multidisciplinary groupwork project on
which students jointly work for 4 weeks. The first six mod-
ules are foundational, which are offered at the University of
Dar es Salaam and the University of Zimbabwe. Thereafter
students follow three modules belonging to one of six (now:
seven) specialisations of their choice, and finally the capstone
groupwork project, again at the University where the students
started. In addition to the six foundational modules and the
capstone module, the University of Dar es Salaam and the
University of Zimbabwe also offered two elective modules
that students choose from a basket of modules.
The six specialisations are:
– Hydrology (University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania);
– Water Resources Management (University of Zim-
babwe);
– Water and Land (University of Botswana);
– Water and Environment (University of Malawi);
– Water Supply and Sanitation (Polytechnic of Namibia);
– Water and Society (University of the Western Cape,
South Africa).
www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/4225/2012/ Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 4225–4232, 2012
4228 L. Jonker et al.: The WaterNet experience in Southern Africa
Fig. 1. WaterNet and its mutually reinforcing activities.
The process of getting this regional programme approved
academically required creativity, regional commitment and
pragmatism. The modality eventually agreed on was that:
– two universities would award the Master of IWRM de-
grees, namely the University of Dar es Salaam and the
University of Zimbabwe, and both universities would
approve identical curricula, including course modules
that would not be taught on their own campuses, but
elsewhere;
– these two universities would offer the core modules as
well as one specialisation each;
– the other specialisations would be offered by other
member universities with a comparative strength in that
field;
– the University of Dar es Salaam and the University of
Zimbabwe would accredit and accept the courses of-
fered and examined and credits awarded by the other
universities.
The implementation of the WaterNet Masters Programme
in IWRM commenced at the two universities that hosted the
core modules, the University of Dar es Salaam and the Uni-
versity of Zimbabwe, in October 2002 and February 2003,
respectively. The other universities were subsequently en-
couraged to use the specialisation modules that they of-
fered to the WaterNet programme as a basis for developing
their fully-fledged and home-grown Masters programme by
adding foundational modules, much in the same way as the
University of the Western Cape was combining their own
postgraduate programme in IWRM with the WaterNet spe-
cialisation in Water and Society (Jonker, 2005).
The WaterNet Board instituted a review of the Masters
programme in 2006. The review report was accepted by the
AGM in 2009 and an extensive curriculum review process
was started in February 2010. This has resulted in the inclu-
sion of a seventh specialisation (GIS and Earth Observation)
and a change in the overall structure of the programme. Of-
fering the electives became problematic because of the large
number of options as opposed to the number of students. Of-
ten there was one student wanting to take an elective mod-
ule. The electives were removed from the curriculum with
one module being added to the specialisation (increase from
three to four) and the second elective added to the founda-
tional core. The new curriculum structure from 2012 is de-
picted in Fig. 2.
Increasing the number of modules in the core allowed for
the addition of GIS and database management and water
quality to the foundation. All the universities that offer part
of the Masters programme contributed to aligning the content
of the core modules as to form a coherent cluster. The recon-
ceptualization that is required in the specialisation with the
addition of an extra module, however, was left to the host in-
stitution. To date some uncertainty exists on whether this has
happened. The restructuring of the curriculum, especially the
addition of a seventh specialisation, raises the question that
with so many specialisations, are we not introducing a new
sectoral approach based on new categories and with that los-
ing the integration that was strived for when the programme
was initiated.
6 Research and outreach
WaterNet does more than offer a joint and regional Mas-
ters programme. It is also involved in other activities that
are closely linked and that strengthen each other. First, the
modular Masters in IWRM creates the opportunity to offer
a comprehensive set of short professional courses. Second,
it assists member institutions to develop interdisciplinary re-
search programmes and activities that not only provide thesis
research subjects and opportunities for students, but that also
generate new findings that are fed back into the curricula.
Third, the research outcomes are presented at symposia co-
organized by the Water Research Fund of Southern Africa
(WARFSA), a fund that has since folded, and the Global Wa-
ter Partnership – Southern Africa (GWP-SA). These annual
symposia provide a platform where water researchers, pro-
fessionals and policy makers exchange ideas and set agendas.
The WaterNet Masters programme in IWRM includes a re-
search project of six months’ duration. There are thus signif-
icant opportunities for synergies with research programmes
in which member institutions and staff are involved, and in
which WaterNet has often played a facilitating and catalysing
role. Two examples where WaterNet has played such a lead-
ing role are:
– “Integrated Water Resources Management for Im-
proved Rural Livelihoods in the Limpopo River Basin”
(Limpopo PN17) one of the basin projects of the Chal-
lenge Programme on Water for Food which ran from
2005 through 2010 and which was CGIAR funded. See
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 4225–4232, 2012 www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/4225/2012/
L. Jonker et al.: The WaterNet experience in Southern Africa 4229
Fig. 2. New structure of the regional Master programme in IWRM,
as at 2012.
Supplement and, e.g. Love et al. (2006). WaterNet is
now involved in a successor project in the Limpopo
Basin (Beukman et al., 2011; Kileshye-Onema et al.,
2011);
– “Smallholder System Innovations in Integrated Water-
shed Management project in the Pangani Basin (Tanza-
nia) and Thukela Basin (South Africa)” (SSI). This mul-
tidisciplinary programme ran from 2004 through 2010,
was funded by Swedish (Sida) and Dutch (WOTRO and
DGIS) sources. See Rockstr
¨
om et al. (2004), Bhatt et
al. (2006) and Bossio et al. (2011). Currently a smaller
successor project is still ongoing.
In these and other research programmes throughout
SADC, several WaterNet member institutions are the main
implementers. Both projects involve many different disci-
plinary experts (from hydrology to governance, from agron-
omy to ecology), maintain links with local agricultural re-
search institutes, local water agencies and rural development
NGOs. In both programmes the researchers work closely
with farmers and practitioners, many experiments having
been conducted on farmers’ fields by and with the farmers,
which helps to ensure that the research results are relevant to
the livelihoods of rural communities.
7 Successes
The WaterNet programme claim some success in contribut-
ing to capacity building in IWRM in Southern and Eastern
Africa. In this section we provide some data with respect
to education, professional courses and capacity building pro-
gramme, research, and finally the annual symposia.
Fig. 3. WaterNet Master in IWRM graduates, 2004–2011.
Fig. 4. Nationalities of WaterNet IWRM graduates, 2004–2011.
7.1 Education
Between 2003, when the WaterNet Master in IWRM pro-
gramme was launched, and 2011, 251 students in total have
graduated, of whom 99 (39 %) are female (Fig. 3). This also
means that 251 Master theses on water related topics were
produced.
One of the four Dublin Principles (which forms the philo-
sophical basis of IWRM) states that “Women play a central
part in the provision, management and safeguarding of wa-
ter” (GWP, 2000). The important role that women play in
water management at the grassroots level is acknowledged
by stakeholders in the region. From this acknowledgement, it
is then argued that the importance should be reflected in the
number of women in formal water management positions.
Hence the explicit mention of the number of women who
have graduated.
The number of graduates comes from eighteen African
countries (Fig. 4).
The relatively low numbers from Burundi, Ethiopia,
Rwanda, Sudan, South Africa and Madagascar is because
students from these countries started to apply for admis-
sion more recently. Initially, the bulk of the students came
from Tanzania and Zimbabwe. This can be explained by the
fact that universities from these two countries hosted the full
Masters programme and as a result the programme was better
www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/4225/2012/ Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 4225–4232, 2012
