Research coordinator

Hailay Zeray Tedla is a hydrology and water resources management specialist with a focus on hydrological and hydrodynamic modeling, remote sensing, citizen science and machine learning applications for integrated water resource management. He has worked as a consultant at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and as an international expatriate lecturer at the National University of Lesotho (NUL). Hailay holds a Ph.D. in Hydrology and Water Resource Management from Addis Ababa University and has a Master’s degree in Flood Risk Management from multiple international universities (TU Dresden, UNESCO_IHE Delft; UPC Barcelona and University of Ljubljana) through the prestigious Erasmus Mundus Scholarship. He is known for his innovative strategies in flood modeling, integrated watershed/catchment management, and sustainable water resource development.

Administrative Assistant

Ms. Lisebo Chobokoane is an office of the NUL Water Institute. She holds a Diploma in Business Management from the National University of Lesotho. Having been awarded Best Achiever’s Award at Goldfields Tvet College in 2015 she enrolled on an internship at the Matjhabeng Municipality in Welkom in 2017. She was also a part-time administrator and accounts clerk at Moochmasia + Urbankraft , Maseru in 2020 and an administration and accounts clerk at Freeprops Properties in Bloemfontein (RSA) in 2022 all of which contributed to the skills required for her role in the NULWI.

Facilitators

Courses for the MSc Programme are facilitated by two experts, one local and one external (i.e regional) through support from WaterNet. Below is the list of some of the internal and external experts:

Dr Lapologang Magole is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Botswana’s Department of Architecture and Planning. She is a Regional Development Planner by profession. She holds a Master of City Planning (MCP, Regional Development Planning)(1995) from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. She received her PhD in Development Studies (Environmental Policy Analysis) at the University of East Anglia, UK in 2003. Her research work and interest covers; natural resources governance in general and common property (water and land) resources management in particular. Currently she works on communities’ adaptation and resilience to climate variability and change. Dr Magole is an environmental policy analyst and policy planning process facilitator. She has vast experience in stakeholder participation management for development and natural recourses planning, meeting facilitation (mediation, negotiation, conflict resolution and empowerment) and strategic planning. She is also an experienced trainer in participatory planning and co-learning methods.

She has worked extensively in the Okavango River Basin (Angola, Namibia and Botswana); however her geographical scope of work covers the whole Southern African Development Community (SADC) region through networking and collaborative work. Through her research and application (development work) she has interacted with resource users at grass roots level, donors, policy makers and implementers and has come to appreciate multiple interests and aims with regard to natural resource management and use.

Dr. Edwin Nyirenda is a Civil Engineer with a focus on Water Resources Management, Hydraulics, and Hydrology. His career highlights include leading the Lusaka Water Supply Rehabilitation Project as Project Manager from 1993 to 1999, under the sponsorship of the African Development Bank. He spearheaded the National Technical Task Force on Non-Revenue Water in Zambia, introducing a revolutionary web-based monitoring system. At the University of Zambia, he was instrumental in formulating an Environmental Flows curriculum, a project with WWF-Zambia support. Since 2000, Dr. Nyirenda has been integral in developing water management tools for the Ministry of Water Development, including the comprehensive Water Permits and Usage databases. His expertise contributed to the hydraulic and hydrologic assessments of the Mulungushi and Lunsemfwa hydro-power schemes in 2003, enhancing Zambia’s power generation capacity. Dr. Nyirenda’s commitment to education is evidenced by his participation in numerous courses on water resource modeling and project management.

Dr. Josefina Tulimevava Hamutoko is a senior lecturer in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Namibia. She holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Namibia, MSc in Environmental Resource Management from Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Seftenberg in Germany. Her long-term career aspiration is to develop frameworks to quantify shallow aquifers in dry lands, their interactions with surface water, deeper aquifers, a changing climate, and human activities for sustainable management. Josefina lives to educate, serve and inspire.

Dr Hailay Zeray Tedla is a hydrology and water resources management specialist with a focus on hydrological and hydrodynamic modeling, remote sensing, citizen science and machine learning applications for integrated water resource management. He has worked as a consultant at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and as an international expatriate lecturer at the National University of Lesotho (NUL). Hailay holds a Ph.D. in Hydrology and Water Resource Management from Addis Ababa University and has a Master’s degree in Flood Risk Management from multiple international universities (TU Dresden, UNESCO_IHE Delft; UPC Barcelona and University of Ljubljana) through the prestigious Erasmus Mundus Scholarship. He is known for his innovative strategies in flood modeling, integrated watershed/catchment management, and sustainable water resource development.

Dr. Lameck FIWA is a senior lecturer in the Agricultural Engineering Department at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR). His academic journey includes a Bachelor of Science in Irrigation from the University of Malawi, Bunda College of Agriculture in 2005, followed by a Master of Science in Water Resources Engineering from the University of Leuven and Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2009. He attained his Doctor of Philosophy in Bioscience Engineering from the University of Leuven in 2015.

Dr. FIWA emphasizes practical hands-on learning and is actively engaged in supervising and examining both postgraduate and undergraduate research for students in water engineering programs. Additionally, he holds administrative roles as the deputy Head of the Agricultural Engineering Department and coordinator of postgraduate programs within the department. He also contributes to various university committees. Dr. FIWA is involved in outreach activities, including membership in the Malawi Engineers Institute and participation in community-focused projects across Malawi, many of which are centered on natural resources.

His primary research interest lies in the utilization of the latest technologies to monitor catchment activities, specifically focusing on the conservation and sustainable use of soil and water resources.

Professor Emmanuel Manzungu is a Full Professor of Agricultural Landscapes, Waterscapes Environmental Management in the Department of Soil Science and Environment in the Faculty of Agriculture, Environment and Food Systems at the University of Zimbabwe.  He has researched and published extensively on water resources /irrigation and environmental management in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has also been involved in teaching, supervising, and examining BSc, MSc/Mphil and PhD theses. Prof Manzungu cooperates with several regional and international universities in teaching and research.

Dr. Fanuel Hazvina, an economist and researcher, possesses extensive experience in university teaching spanning over 20 years.  I am currently a Lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. Dr. Hazvina’s expertise encompasses various fields, including environmental economics, energy development, and international trade. Alongside his academic pursuits, he has also served as an Economist and Energy Development Officer at the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, where he made contributions to project planning, energy conservation, and the promotion of renewable energy initiatives. Dr. Hazvina’s contributions to the field are widely recognized, evident in the substantial number of research papers he has published in several refereed journals. He has provided consulting services to renowned international organizations such as COMESA, UN Women, UNDP, World Bank, USAID, EU, and ILO.

Dr. Hazvina has taught a wide range of courses that include Natural Resource Economics, Environmental Economics, Mineral Economics and Management, Socio-Economics and Water Resources, Water Resources Planning and Analysis, Macroeconomics, and International Trade Theory and Policy. Furthermore, he has played a significant role in guiding and supervising numerous postgraduate dissertations in the field of International Economics, Environmental and Natural Resource Economics.

Prof Jean-Marie Kileshye Onema is the Executive Manager and Head of the WaterNet Secretariat. He oversees the implementations of Capacity development activities across the 16 SADC countries (www.waternetonline.org). Prof Kileshye Onema holds an extraordinary full Professorship position with the Unit of Environmental Sciences and Management at North West University, South Africa (www.nwu.ac.za ). Similarly, He has a Professorship appointment with the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Lubumbashi, DR Congo (www.unilu.ac.cd ). He is currently the Secretary General of International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) (www.iah.info ). He sits on the Academic and Scientific Advisory Committee (ASAC) of the SASSCAL Graduate Programme at the Namibian University of Sciences and Technology (NUST).

Prof Kileshye Onema holds a PhD degree in water engineering from the School of Engineering and Built Environment of the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He went for a number of pecializat trainings at the University of Nevada in Reno, USA,  the University of Osnabruck in Germany and IHE Delft in the Netherlands to name a few. He served on the DUPC committee as the representative of the African Continent (2016-2021) (DUPC is the programmatic Cooperation from the Royal Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IHE Delft). He is a well published author and has led several collaborative projects on various aspects of water resources management. He was involved in Transformative Futures for Water Security, Valuing water and IAHS preparatory sessions for the UN water 2023 conference in New York.

Lobina Palamuleni is a Professor with a PhD in Geography and Environmental Management obtained from University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Prof Palamuleni also holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration (Organisational Behaviour) obtained from North-West University, South Africa. I am currently a professor in the School of Geo and Spatial Sciences, North-West University, South Africa. Her expertise includes detection of land use and land cover changes, application of remote sensing techniques and geographical information systems to solve environmental problems specifically water resources, and climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in the water sector. Very instrumental is the monitoring and management of water quality and quantity to ensure equitable access and distribution.

Thokozani Kanyerere is an Associate Professor of Hydrogeology and Water Resource Management at the University of Western Cape where he lectures and conducts research related to groundwater hydrology and management since 2013. He has 25years’of experience in university academic and research work. He obtained his PhD (2012) from the University of Western Cape, Cape Town in South Africa where he assessed groundwater management practices for domestic use using IWRM approaches. He received his Bachelors Degree in Geography and Education (1995) MSc in Environmental Sciences (2001) from the University of Malawi, Zomba in Malawi and Mphil (2004) from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He is involved in direct and developmental applied research work on groundwater and water resources management from health and capacity-building perspectives. His research interests are in groundwater processes, groundwater/surface-water interactions, aquifer characterization, groundwater recharge; groundwater management which enabled him to coordinate academic and groundwater projects. His passion is on groundwater science, technology and management for strengthening human capacity. Prof. Kanyerere is a supervisor, an examiner of postgraduate students, a reviewer of peer-reviewed journals and institutes, and a collaborator of networks of professional and community of expert practitioners.

Assoc. Prof  Makoala V. Marake is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture of the National University of Lesotho with over 15 years of experience as a teacher and trainer in both academic and community development initiatives. Prof. Marake’s qualifications and skills span the areas of agriculture and environmental development in both research and extension/outreach. Prof Marake have researched and consulted broadly in soil fertility/plant nutrition, conservation agriculture systems, land evaluation and environmental impacts of land use and participatory approaches to resource conservation, environmental management, rural Development & biophysical interactions in relation to people’s livelihoods.

He has coordinated and conducted several multidisciplinary projects with local, regional and international links including the Initiative for Development & Equity in African Agriculture; Global Change and Subsistence Rangelands; Impact and Organizational Assessment in the PTC II (Production Through Conservation) Programme in Lesotho; Transfrontier Development Project Between Lesotho and South Africa: A Social Assessment; National Capacity Self-Assessment for Implementing Multilateral Environmental Conventions in Lesotho; Climate Change Adaptation in Lesotho; Chairman of the Environment, Natural Resources and Climate change cluster for development of National Strategic Plan on Environment and Climate Change.

Dr. Botle Esther Mapeshoane is a Soil Scientist (Pedologist) holding PhD and MSc in Soil and Land Management with pecialization in wetland assessments, soil survey, classification and land evaluation. She has more than 15 year’s university teaching experience. She has participated in a number of land assessment projects for example; the Conceptualisation and Operationalization of Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) in Lesotho under SADC Water Division’s RSAP; the Development of the National Action Plan (NAP) for SADC Great Green Wall Strategy under the UNCCD. She supervised and led the development of the Lesotho Soil Database and Soil Information System (LESIS). She participated in international experts’ forums such as Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS – FAO) and contributed to the development of Global soil carbon stock and the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management. As an academic citizen, she has contributed to climate change adaptation research through land management, supervision of postgraduate research and publishing in accredited journals.

Mr. Simon Takalimane teaches the following undergraduate courses: Introduction to Cartography, Introduction to GIS, Introduction to Remote Sensing, Database Systems, Spatial Analysis and Digital Image processing. He is currently a PhD candidate at UKZN and his thesis focuses on the use of machine learning algorithms in monitoring wetlands vegetation. His research interests are on utility of machine learning algorithms on the estimation of biophysical and biochemical properties of vegetation using both passive and active sensors.

Dr Maeti George (Ph.D.) is a senior lecturer at The National University of Lesotho. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science Education; a Master’s degree in Water and Environmental Management and PhD. In Environmental Management. She has over 19 years of experience in natural resources management and evaluation of their potential degradation due to anthropogenic activities. Two years of lecturing were in Water and Environmental Engineering and eleven in the Environmental Health programme. Further professional training was obtained on IWRM, Water pollution Control & Water Resources Management and Land use change & remote sensing. She has supervised Masters Degree students and engaged as a facilitator in NUL MSc. Programmes. She has reviewed some Environmental Science programmes regionally.

Publications were on wetlands’ protection and water purification functions; climate change & water resources; environmental and potentially toxic elements’ (PTEs) impacts on soils, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. Other research interests are on impact of degrading environment and natural resources onto human health; community-based natural resource management; and Environmental Impact Assessment.

Ms Puseletso Likoetla is a Lecturer of Agricultural and Resource Economics and a professional teacher. She joined the National University of Lesotho in 2012 after lecturing for 6 years at Lesotho Agricultural College. She has also worked as a development facilitator (Agriculture and Environment) and an Area Development Program (ADP) Manager at World Vision International-Lesotho, a government farm management economist and a high school teacher. Her research focuses on application of economics to environmental issues, agriculture, agribusiness and marketing, policy, climate smart agriculture and food security. She has publications in refereed journals.

She is into consulting and community service with Government and other sectors. She also has exposure and interest in agricultural value chains development and research, and farmers’ training on Global-G.A.P. (Good Agricultural Practices) certification standards.