Eastern Africa Water Association

The Eastern Africa Water Association (EAWA) is a professional membership association, and a registered entity. EAWA aims to foster information exchange, to strengthen international networking, and to stimulate co-operation and collaboration with/within Eastern Africa in the water and environmental resource management sectors in order to tackle the scientific and social challenges in the region.

The EAWA network presently interlinks more than 200 Eastern African experts in aquatic ecology, aquatic ecosystems and resource management (e.g. fisheries), aquaculture, biodiversity/conservation ecology, and water & sanitation. At the formative stages, EAWA initially targeted the alumni of Austrian sponsored International Post Graduate Training in Limnology (IPGL), and since then has continued to enjoy the support of the Austrian Development Cooperation.

EAWA was inaugurated in December 2003, with support of the Austrian Development Cooperation at Colline Hotel, Mukono, Uganda. The EAWA - inaugural symposium was sponsored by the Austrian Development Cooperation and organized by IPGL in cooperation with:

• Makerere University, Uganda;
• Wetlands Inspection Division, Ministry of Water, Lands & Environment, Uganda;
• Egerton University, Kenya;
• University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;
• ADC-Office, Uganda;
• Horizont 3000, Uganda

The exchange of know-how and the dissemination of innovations and knowledge management have been identified as crucial measures to enhance the capacity of East African institutions to develop and implement solutions adapted to local situations. EAWA has four chapters (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia) with a possibility of Sudan, Rwanda, Malawi and Zambia joining.