Arba Minch Water Technology Institute is the USP (Unique Selling Point), the very seed out of which Arba Minch University was born 31 years ago and since then, it has been fashioning water technologies and creating innumerable professionals spread across Africa and world. The Water Resource Research Centre being its sole research unit tasked to explore innovative water-related knowhow to improve lives of community is an independent entity, but it has many hurdles to cross in acquiring needed infrastructure and cruise at its objectives.Click here to see the pictures


WRRC Director, Dr Samuel Dagalo, having assumed his office, isn’t super excited but has great fire in his belly to achieve daunting task ahead. Things like tiny annual budget, inadequate researchers, ill-equipped set-up, unattractive pay structure and few disheartened staff sometimes make his vision bit blurred; but its hope that has kept him going in these trying circumstances. All will be well in near future, he hopes.  

If at all we want WRRC to be ‘Centre of Excellence’, then we must have hefty annual budget, passionate researchers, well-entrenched scientific infrastructure, better transport facilities, technical knowhow and strategic support from the Ministry of Education and elsewhere, even though if AMU management wants to upscale support, the strait jacket of rules and regulations doesn’t allow it, he stressed.

Dr Samuel took the rein of his office in December 2017, by then around 12 projects were underway, of which only six has been completed and remaining are yet to be accomplished. Currently, one Grand Project pertaining to irrigation has been done by Dr Kinfe Kassa and co-investigators and other on web-based integrated water management system by Mequanint Muluneh is on. Most projects were left half-way due to staff exodus and even PhD research is part of my office, he added.

For WRRC, internal and external network is the lifeline, globally it’s yet to get connected, but trying to align with reputable institutions from Belgium, Holland and others to sustain ourselves; we are planning to bag projects from global agencies. In Ethiopia, Ministry of Water, Irrigation & Energy, Ethiopian Construction Design & Supervision Works Corporation, Ethiopian Metrological Agency and Rift Valley Basin Authority are its potential partners.

WRRC and AWTI are two sides of the same coin, former has academicians and researchers, while latter provides all required strategic support, so AWTI and WRRC look at each other’s for a breakthrough. Our budget is a peanut; many come with proposals asking budget, but we have no adequate funds, he rued.

If you look into available scarce resources compared to huge mandate and expectations from across the board look almost disproportionate. As of now, we have just 5 full-time researchers, whereas we need quite more. If we want to run WRRC in right perspective we must get robust annual budget. We try to appoint senior researchers but unattractive salary and lack of incentives drive them away, he added.

Listing out achievement, he said, this year we have completed six thematic researches; one has been reviewed while review of five more are underway. For research, we need dedicated hydrology, hydraulics, irrigation and water quality laboratories. The good thing is that we have building ready that can accommodate all we need. Lack of appetite among researchers, where some get frustrated due to administrative hassles is the bottle-neck. Still, there are few who walk extra miles, but they too get stuck with management and course works, he emphasized. 

On optimistic note, he said, operating under acute limitations is frustrating, but I hope bit by bit, things will be all right. Despite limitations, we have good appetite to conduct problem-solving research and hope those completing doctoral studies will join us and push for acquiring abroad grants, so we have a hope!

He adds in future, AMU will be called a Research University and things will fall in places. Actually, I thank dedicated researchers who are trying to push the envelope, but those sluggish will be admonished to do what is expected of them. We have limitations, but we have to find a way out, to those asking for more salary, I would say, if you keep cribbing, you will lose; those giving their best will get what they deserve.

On gender equity, Dr Samuel Dagalo said, female researchers are very few, but we might have more in future. Being a director, he is involved in a research and agreed that road to success for AWTI and WRRC aren’t that easy. But after five to ten years, if we perform to our best, situation will be improved. We need to seek and search for every available opportunity; we are planning and will certainly push harder to be there.
(Corporate Communication Directorate)