“I was working as a regional manager in Uganda for the Nile Basin Discourse and during that time we faced a number of challenges. I was dealing with water projects at the transboundary level, specifically on the Nile. We seemed to have so many meetings and we never made headway. When we tried to get the country representatives to find a middle ground, they would say they were sent to represent a position and they couldn’t reach a consensus. We did that for over four years and it was frustrating.
For that reason I wanted to come to a country that is leading in water issues and that’s how I ended up in Delft. I’m part of the Faculty for the Future programme, a fund of the Schlumberger Foundation that helps develop women leaders who are studying science.
‘The future could be very bleak if we’re all working separately’
The focus of my research is mainly looking at how to foster cooperation within a river basin where the counties or countries are working unilaterally. Everyone is doing their own thing and they don’t really see the big picture. I started off developing scenarios together with the Nile basin stakeholders of what the Nile will look like in 2050. From that we moved on to simulating a game that will use those scenarios for stakeholders to be able to see how they can test different options and see potential outcomes.
If you don’t see the bigger picture, there may not even be water to fight about in the future. If you can start working together to manage the watersheds so that we ensure streams and rivers don’t dry up, then you might have something to talk about. The future could be very bleak if we’re all working separately. Getting people together to talk face to face makes a big difference. A lot of issues could be resolved if you can trust your neighbour.”
Heather Montague / Freelance writer
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