GAF AG to conclude AQUIFER project

AQUIFER is one of the demonstrator projects of ESA's "Earth observation for Integrated Water Resources Management in Africa" initiative, known as TIGER and funded by ESA's Data User Element (DUE) programme. GAF AG is the leader of the AQUIFER team. The AQUIFER project has brought together more than 20 partners from Africa, the Maghreb and Europe, including national and international water management entities, remote sensing companies, GIS service providers and researchers. GAF AG, based in Munich, is the prime contractor in the industrial team while OSS (Sahara and Sahel Observatory, Tunis) is responsible for user coordination. AQUIFER has been instrumental in the establishment of a continuation project, "Geo-Aquifer", co-funded by the African Water Facility (AWF) and OSS. Capitalising on the encouraging results of the AQUIFER project, Geo-Aquifer will provide an extension and expansion of services, offering increased geographic coverage and user specific refinements. Mr. Espen Volden, (Technical Officer, ESA) states: "Cooperative management of internationally shared aquifers aims at ensuring the sustainable provision of water to the population and avoiding international conflicts. The AQUIFER project has taken a large step towards making Earth observation from space an effective support tool for such cooperative management. We see the launch of the follow-up project, Geo-Aquifer, as a measure of success of the work of the AQUIFER project consortium. It also demonstrates the effective partnership established with OSS and the national agencies in charge of water resources management.

Mr. Yvan Kedaj (Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, AWF) adds: "I really appreciate the appropriation by the countries of the tools and methodologies demonstrated by the ESA AQUIFER project. Countries asked AWF through the OSS, initially as coordinating and executing agency, and now as secretariat of the consultation mechanism, for a continuation of national capacity building using the tools and methodologies developed through AQUIFER".