From geosciences to water : topics of common interest between ParisTech schools and their Ghanaian partners

4 ParisTech schools – AgroParisTech, Chimie ParisTech – PSL, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, MINES ParisTech – PSL –  organized in June several scientific workshops with their Ghanaian partners, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi and the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in Tarkwa.

Because of COVID ParisTech schools could not host a visit of their Ghanaian partners in Paris in 2020/2021 to close the project « French-African Cooperation for Engineering in Africa (FACEA) » funded by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs in the frame of the Programme « Appui au Développement de l’Enseignement supérieur français en Afrique (ADESFA) ». But never mind, they offered to organise scientific workshops so that researchers can discuss together on topics they are all interested in. So three workshops took place in June.

Organised pby Isabelle Thénevin (Centre de Géosciences, MINES ParisTech – PSL) and Jamel Seidu (UMaT), the first workshop dedicated to geosciences gathered more than sixty people including a lot of Master students and PhD candidates from UMaT. About 15 panelists participated to the seminar opened by Vincent Lagneau, Director of Centre of Geosciences, and Patricia Beatrice Mireku-Gyimah, in charge of international relations at UMaT, and presented their research. The topics were very diverse: geophysical techniques for groundwater exploration(Anthony Ewusi), seismic imaging (Alexandrine Gesret), geomechanics George M. Tetteh, Isabelle Thénevin), groundwaters and human health (Emmanuel D. Sunkari), geostatistics (Xavier Freulon). The workshop was an opportunity for PhD candidates (Jamel Seidu, Ebenezer Ansah, Lucia Clarotto, Rabiatu Abubakar) to present their work. The enthusiasm and the pleasure of sharing science between the research teams are the obvious conclusions of this seminar.

Adèle Bressy, researcher in Laboratoire Eau Environnement et Systèmes Urbains (LEESU) at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, organised two workshops on June 17 and 24, 2021 with Sampson Oduro-Kwarteng, Director of Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre, Kumasi (RWESCK), African Center of Excellence funded by the World Bank and located at KNUST. Researcher of the three other partner schools of the FACEA project - AgroParisTech, Chimie ParisTech – PSL and MINES ParisTech – PSL – also participated with KNUST’s researchers. They could discuss about integrated water resources management (Nicolas Flipo, Abena Dufie Wiredu Bremang), water utility management issues Worlanyo Kwadjo Siabi, Marine Colon, Martin Seidl, José-Frédéric Deroubaix), water contamination and treatments (Cyrine Slim, Fethi Bedioui, Courage Egbi, Adèle Bressy, José-Frédéric Deroubaix) as well as monitoring, characterization and management off water resources (Josephine Obodai, Brigitte Vinçon-Leite). Governance, methods and used technologies were on the agenda.

ParisTech had the opportunity to remind during all workshops the existing funding programmes: Eiffel master and PhD scholarships, scholarships of the French Embassy in Ghana in partnership with the Ghana Scholarships Secretariat, Nkabom programme, and even Erasmus+.

The  Chair Water for All AgroParisTech Suez also followedup  the visit of ParisTech schools in Ghana in January 2020. It organised in the beginning of June 2021 in Kumasi an executive training session (5 days) for managers of GWCL, the national water management company in Ghana. The session was dedicated to « non-revenue water management and an innovation app for public services ». Other training sessions may be organised in the next months and case studies in Ghana were introduced in the executive training offered by the Chair. Cooperation will go ahead in partnership with French companies and GWCL.

The funding of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign affairs was therefore a big opportunity to initiate cooperation. ParisTech thanks particularly the French Embassy in Ghana for its support.

Detailed programme of the workshops here.

The training session of the Chair Water for All in video.