RNRA concludes training on Isotope hydrology organized for Water Engineers and Practitioners.

Background
All regional water related programmes/projects in the Nile basin do not have a groundwater component. It is in this regard; Project “Mainstreaming groundwater considerations into the Integrated Management of the Nile River Basin (Project RAF08/042)” was established in 2008 and involves all the 10 NBI countries. The Objective of Project is to apply isotope methods in order to shed light on the difficult areas of the hydrological cycle.

Funded by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and UNDP/GEF, the project will fill the groundwater knowledge gap by enhancing national and regional capacity to add a “groundwater dimension” to joint management of the Nile basin. The project supports countries to increase capacity of both human and institutional by providing necessary equipment and expatriates while countries are required to provide necessary support to facilitate project activities carried-out at the national level.
By this background, Rwanda Natural Resources Authority Organized a five day training involved Water engineers and practitioners from 21-25 December 2011, aimed at helping participants to gain a better understanding in Isotope Hydrology which is a recent application of the peaceful uses of nuclear technology in environment studies.
During the opening, the Deputy Director General in Rwanda Natural Resources Authority in charge of Water Resources Management, KABALISA Vincent de Paul revealed that Application of Isotope technology will contribute more towards understand water balance of Rwanda, in turn leading to the better design of water resources management plans and accurately predict future supply. He noted that, this is the training of trainers where participants are expected to disseminate this technology to many Rwandans and RNRA shall continue to support this initiative.
Introducing the use of Isotope in water resources, the coordinator of RAF08042 Project at the national level, Eng. MUKIZA Odillo, revealed that the principals of this technique depends on measuring the concentration of naturally occurring Isotopes e.g. Oxygen-18, Deuterium (H-2), Tritium (H-3), Carbon-14 and Nitrogen in Water.
He added that their variations give information that helps in several fields such as origin of groundwater (recharge areas), Surface and groundwater relationships and Water balance of lakes among others.
During the training, participants attended lectures on operations of the Isotope Hydrology Section of the IAEA, introduction to isotope hydrology and case studies on application of isotope technology in Africa including groundwater study in lava region of Rwanda. Participants also conducted a field work in Eastern Province where they collected isotope samples on various water bodies as part of training. Water Samples are sipped for analysis in nuclear laboratory at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria and results are brought back for interpretation.
This technology shall be of helpful towards achieving water resources policy vision to promote sustainable use of water resources and which contributes meaningfully to the socio-economic development of Rwanda.