Overview

The “de – FLuoridation technologies for imprOving quality of WatEr and agRo – animal products along the East African Rift Valley in the context of aDaptation to climate change project ” FLOWERED , is a 3 years project (june 2016 – may 2019) funded by the European Union’s H2020 Research and Innovation Programme.

FLOWERED Overall objective is to contribute to the development of a sustainable water management system in areas affected by fluoride contamination in water, soils and food in the African Rift Valley countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania), with the aim of improving the living standards for local population.

What FLOWERED aims to?

Study, test and implement innovative defluoridation technologies for drinking and irrigation water that will mainly operate at small village scale and to develop an integrated, sustainable and participative water and agriculture management at a cross-boundary catchment scale.

FLOWERED Scientific Approach

On the basis of the complexity of the issue of water de-fluoridation, the proposed scientific approach in FLOWERED is based on a detailed knowledge of the geological and hydrogeological setting that controls contamination of water that constitute the prerequisite for the implementation of a sustainable water management and for the proposal of sustainable and suitable strategies for water sanitation and agricultural system.

• Innovative agricultural practices will be assessed, aiming to mitigate the impacts of Fluoride contamination of water and soil on productivity of selected food and forage crops and dairy cattle health and production. The development of an innovative and shared Geodata system will support the integrated, sustainable and participative management system.
• an integrated water and agriculture management system will enable local communities to manage water resources, starting from using efficient defluoridation techniques and applying sustainable agricultural practices.
• FLOWERED, focusing on innovative technologies and practices and will take into account local experiences

Improving Knowledge

The integrated approaches improve knowledge for EU partners, local researchers, farmers and decision makers. The Project through the involvement of SMEs will strengthen the development co-innovative demonstration processes as well as new market opportunities.

Gender equality and women empowerment

The project will hold in high regard gender equality and women’s empowerment, as they are the main actors in the safeguard of the health of the family. They will be involved directly during the training activities on the use of defluoridation techniques and the best practices in the use of domestic and agricultural water.

EXCELLENCE

FLOWERED addresses environmental and health (human and animal) issues related to the fluoride contamination in the African Rift Valley. It will improve the current scientific knowledge on the presence of fluoride in surface water and groundwater as a consequence of water-rock interaction processes, and on its impact on soils and agro-animals products (food security).

The optimization of locally used defluoridators, in terms of efficiency, duration, health security, ease of use, production and operating costs, will be pursued. Integration of advanced scientific research with local knowledge and experiences is expected to provide opportunity to generate new know-how for both scientists and stakeholders,enhance decision making and facilitate the rising of innovative ideas for EU and African enterprises. Socio-economic, institutional and technological contexts of the three African case study areas (Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya) located along the Rift Valley will be considered.

The project combines an interdisciplinary research approach, which would allow bringing the tested technologies and the agricultural and livestock management systems into the doorstep of the rural communities of the case study areas.

IMPACTS

FLOWERED will contribute to reduce the fluoride contamination of water and land resources in the East African Rift Valley (Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania) that represent one of the major challenges for health, environmental and food security issue in this area. The project will realise an integrated, sustainable and participative water and agriculture management system that will ultimately improve living standards and human health of the local population, also ensuring equality in the partitioning of natural resources between different end users in the three case study areas.

FLOWERED will directly contribute to two of the seven Grand Societal Challenges, i.e. the challenge “Food security and Sustainable Agriculture” and the challenge “Climate Action, Environment and Resource Efficiency”.

FLOWERED will provide support across the innovation chain from research, to development, to proof of concept, piloting, demonstration projects and is expected to have strong impacts on: (i) Innovation capacity of water managers and agricultural actors, (ii) Competitiveness, (ii) Environment, (iii) Policy and (iv) Science.

IMPLEMENTATION

The FLOWERED work plan is designed to answer to the objectives of the Call “WATER-5-2014/2015:strengthening international R&I cooperation in the field of water”, namely to the topic “WATER 5c) [2015]Development of water supply and sanitation technology, systems and tools, and/or methodologies”.

It is organized in 8 work packages and 28 tasks that provide 41 Deliverables (including the ethics requirements) and 21 Milestones.

The structure of FLOWERED work plan is based on three main pillars: advance beyond the state-of-the-art; improve technology; address public engagement and social challenges.

Graphical presentation of the components of the FLOWERED project