The Regional Association for Irrigation and Drainage (ARID) was created in July 1996 with the financial support of France and FAO, with the following objectives:

• to promote irrigation development in countries where such technology presents a valuable alternative;
• to stimulate the creation of Irrigation/Drainage National Associations;
• to facilitate the progressive participation of these National Associations to the activities of the International Commission for Irrigation/Drainage;
• to create a network for technical exchanges concerning irrigation/drainage among ARID members;
• to organize seminars and working groups;
• to issue specialized publications;
• to organize the continuous training of ARID members;
• to offer all complementary services according to needs expressed by ARID members;
• to create and maintain a computerized database including professional data on all its members, for the reciprocal benefit of employees and employers.

• President: Moïse Sonou, FAO Senior Regional Irrigation Officer, Accra, Ghana;
• Vice-president: Aliou Koure, Direction Génie rural, Niamey, Niger;
• Public relations: A. Abdou Moulaye, Small Private Irrigation Project, Niger;
• General Secretary: J. Varet, EIER Director, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso;
• Assistant Gen. Secretary: Laurent Compaore, EIER Lecturer, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

The First Ordinary General Assembly is due to take place in Accra in January 1998, when the membership of the Executive Bureau will be decided.

It is planned to associate ARID members from 23 countries in western and central Africa. A first ARID Newsletter was published in July 1997 at EIER, Ouagadougou (Section 2.1). It is hoped that some financial support will become available in the future from the World Bank.

The Wetland Development and Management (WEDEM) network covers the sub-Saharan African countries.

Supported by FAO, it aims at promoting the development and management of inland valley bottoms, dambos, lake banks and other types of wetlands.

The Inland Valley Bottoms Consortium has its headquarters in the West-African Rice Development Association (WARDA) at Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire, a member of CGIAR.

It provides support to small research projects involving inland valley bottoms in various countries (for example, Ghana, Burkina Faso) where the network has a national correspondent.