Challenges to Building Intellectual Water-Resource Capacity in Ethiopia

Building capacity is an often-cited goal of donor nations, such as the, when providing funds to developing countries such as. Historically, this capacity was provided in the form of rigid infrastructure, such as roads, dams, and water-supply and wastewater-treatment facilities. More recently, capacity is defined as an educational gift: teaching the local people to fish on their own. The ongoing United States Department of Defense Combined Joint Task Force Horn of (CJTF-HOA) program embraces this new definition and focuses on providing water-resource education via training courses, collaborative field surveys, and mentoring. However, despite this greater desire to provide intellectual capacity, significant challenges remain. Emigration of newly trained locals is a constant concern with no obvious remedy. Providing in-country educational support via donor professionals is ideal, but requires either frequent, expensive travel or well-qualified educators willing to reside overseas. Newly acquired scientific tools, such as water-resource databases, need to be owned and maintained by a stable, federal government agency. Slow, unreliable Internet service and ubiquitous computer viruses limit training and routine operations. Safe access to field areas makes on-site training and field work problematic. Success in building intellectual water-resource capacity is determined as much by overcoming these challenges as understanding the local hydrology.