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As part of the implementation of the project "Knowing water better: towards fairer and more sustainable access to natural resources - KnoWat" in Senegal, FAO is working closely with the Direction de la Gestion et de la Planification des Ressources en Eau (DGPRE) to strengthen water resources governance processes in order to contribute to food security and to fight against climate change, water shortages and increasing competition over water resources.

In this context, FAO and DGPRE organized a webinar to present WaPOR and PROGRES, two databases that are extremely important for the collection, management, and analysis of water resources data, and for the production of knowledge and the development of water tenure governance policies in Senegal. 

The event was held on 25 May, from 9 to 11 am (Dakar time). The DGPRE Director, Mr Niokhor Ndour, and the KnoWat Project Coordinator, Mr Benjamin Kiersch, welcomed the participants, and the National Coordinator of the KnoWat project in Senegal, Mr Lamine Samaké, explained the objectives and the agenda of the meeting.

WaPOR, a tool for assessing water productivity through open access to remote sensing data, was presented by FAO. It tracks land and water productivity across Africa and the Middle East, providing vital and timely information for policy development and on-the-ground actions to address water scarcity and drought risks and the adoption of sustainable natural resource management practices. 

PROGRES (Programmation de la Gestion des Ressources en Eau) was developed by DGPRE and allows the storage of data on all hydraulic works and their hydrogeological and hydrological characteristics as well as their location. It is an easy-to-access application via the Internet. More than 8900 structures are listed in this database at the national level. 

Following the two presentations, the discussions focused on the following points: 

• Availability and accessibility of databases; 
• The quality and coverage of the data;
• Synergy and complementarity between the two tools; 
• The use of observed data and satellite data;
• Involvement of local stakeholders and data updating.

The webinar allowed the participants to discuss potential synergies and complementarities between the two databases, but above all to exchange on their scaling up in Senegal in order to provide reliable data to decision-makers and for the elaboration of water resources governance policies.