REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON THE VALIDATION OF THE DRAFT REPORT OF WASTEWATER DISCHARGE STANDARDS AND WATER QUALITY MONITORING AND DATA SHARING STRATEGIES IN THE NIGER BASIN
Nigeria, Abuja 18-24 May 2022
From 18 to 24 May 2022, the workshop on the validation of the report of the draft wastewater discharge standards and water quality monitoring and data sharing strategies in the Niger Basin was held in the conference room of the Bolton White Hotel in Abuja, Nigeria.
The workshop took place over five days to cover the validation of the report of the standards project (18-19 May 2022), and to benefit from experiences in similar basins to the Niger basin (20, 23, 24 May 2022).
About forty participants from the nine NBA member countries, UNDP, the NBA Executive Secretariat, the Regional and National Coordinating Bodies of the Users of Natural Resources of the Niger Basin and UNIDO took part in this meeting (see attendance list in Annex I).
The objectives of this workshop were to:
- Present and validate the report document of the project on wastewater discharge standards in the Niger River Basin;
- Share the experiences of the Danube Basin in water quality monitoring and data sharing for their capitalization;
- Establish an Advisory Board composed of all relevant stakeholders to ensure that national priorities/plans are effectively addressed and implemented in the TEST project;
- Exchange good practices on implementation of standards among the basin countries for capitalization.
The expected results on the validation of the report of the project of wastewater discharge standards in the Niger Basin have been achieved.
The final report was validated subject to the consideration of the amendments formulated by the plenary.
Instead of the Advisory Board mentioned in the workshop objectives, it was agreed to set up and operationalize the Regional Advisory Group provided for under the NBA water charter.
Thus, the support of the NB-ITTAS project (TEST component) and all partners was requested for the implementation of the process of setting up and operationalization of the Regional Advisory Group of the NBA water charter.
To this end, the workshop drafted a list of the main actors who could sit in the Regional Advisory Group.
At the end, the workshop made the following recommendations:
- The composing of draft standards supplementing Annex No. 1 to the Niger Basin Water Charter for environmental protection based on the present report on the draft standards;
- The necessary arrangements to support countries in obtaining the required funding to strengthen the technical and operational capacities of water analysis laboratories, as well as those of NFS and UNCs;
- The transmission of a request for funding to UNIDO to ensure the harmonization of wastewater analysis methods/processes to ensure compliance with discharge standards in the Niger Basin;
- Share with the NBO the results of the monitoring of water resources quality to ensure global monitoring at the basin level (States);
- Extend to qualitative monitoring the budget support provided to national hydrological services (NBA);
- Henceforth link qualitative monitoring to seasonal quantitative monitoring (States);
- Finalize, formalize and operationalize the Memorandum of Understanding between member countries and the NBA SE for data sharing between countries and NBA (NBA);
- Set up a strategy to monitor the quality of water resources (surface, underground and various effluents) with other actors in the countries (NBA);
- Modernize water quality monitoring instruments (TFP/UNIDO);
- Automate (probes, aquatic drones etc.) the collection of specific parameters (pH, OD, Temperature, etc.) (PTF/UNIDO);
- Seek support from OSS and IAEA, and other financial partners for funding the operational and technical strengthening of national laboratories (NBA/UNIDO).
- Identify and support at least one laboratory per country in the accreditation process (ABN/ITTAS);
- Support NBA Member States in water quality monitoring (ITTAS);
- Ask States to share their water quality monitoring data with the NPO. It is up to the NBA to make the expressed request (States/SE-NBA);
- Request the creation of an early warning system in NBA member countries (States/SE-NBA);
- Pooling the skills of national laboratories (States/SE-NBA);
To this end of 5 days, the participants of the workshop welcomed the sharing of the rich experiences from the Danube in monitoring and sharing of water quality data and urged the maintenance and strengthening of the exchange of experience with the ICPDR.
Finally, the workshop activities ended on a note of satisfaction from the participants.
