The kick-off workshop was held on March 26th at the Buni Innovation Hub, at the Commission for Science and Technology.
Panel: Innovating Urban Flooding
Primer: Addressing the Urban Flood Challenge—Innovations and Opportunities
Rekha Menon, Program Leader, World Bank
Prof. Robert Kiunsi, Dean of the School of Real Estate Studies (SRES), Ardhi University
Julia Letara, Town Planner, Kinondoni Municipal Council
Dr. Bob Day, Director of Non-Zero-Sum Development
The first panel started proceedings with a high level discussion on urban flood risk resilience in Dar es Salaam and the opportunities for institutional collaboration across Dar es Salaam. Our guest of honour, Patrick Makungu the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Science, Communication and Technology who highlighted the need for urban flood risk resilience and the importance of leading and investing in Science and Technology to develop innovations in this area. This was echoed by academia in that for community mapping to be sustainable, skills building across academic and government institutions must occur; building a curriculum around mapping. From this point we will need accurate data at a local level to identify flood risk and impact to citizens.