OUAGADOUGOU – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is conducting a study tour to the United States for 12 staff members of the Burkina Faso Ministry of Water Resources from February 22 to March 6, 2014.

“This study tour, organized by the USAID West Africa Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Program, is an opportunity for the Burkina Faso water agencies to strengthen their staff’s technical and managerial skills,” said Laura Coughlin, USAID West Africa Acting Mission Director. “They will attend formal presentations at Florida International University in addition to field visits with the South Florida Water Management District and other government agencies of the State of Florida.”

Study tour participants include staff members of the Burkinabe government’s five water agencies that address water management issues in separate geographical areas (Nakambé, Liptako, Gourma, Mouhoun and Cascades), as well as technical advisory committee members.

In Burkina Faso, water management and access are major development challenges. The water agencies face issues such as poor land management that has caused land degradation with negative consequences for water resources, including silting and sedimentation; overuse of land and lack of good environmental management practices; low mobilization of water resources for drinking water and water provision; and lack of water quality monitoring.

In addition, two of the study tour participants will go to Loveland, Colorado, for training by the ADCON company on how to use a hydrometric station that will be installed in the Boucle du Mouhoun region by the USAID West Africa Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Program to measure rainfall and river flows.