Word of the Director

Water is transcendental and complex, and has shaped the rise of cultures and civilisations across the world. Over time, human being have learned to live with and to master water for multiple uses. These uses span from initiation rituals of life stages to agriculture, domestic consumption, energy production, fishing, industry, recreation, transportation, etc. Coping with water scarcity, controlling its excess, improving its quality and taking advantage of its availability; these are the great challenges of time that human being have had to face.

The needs for water resources management and development in the Congo Basin are enormous. The demands for water are not only expected from the nine riparian countries of the Congo Basin, but also from other water scarce regions across Africa. The strategic challenge for the future is therefore to ensure adequate quantity and quality of water to meet the growing needs among competitive agricultural, commercial, domestic, environmental and industrial uses.

Although we are, to some extent, aware of the threat to water in the Congo Basin, and consequently to life, it is evident that appropriate efforts to address it remain scattered. One of the major challenges to these efforts is the lack of adequate knowledge about water dynamics, its distribution over time and space, the interactions it undergoes, and how our efforts should be coordinated to minimize damage and ensure its sustainability. This therefore requires concerted actions focused on innovative research and capacity building to promote a harmonious and efficient use of the Congo Basin's water resources.

In light of the historical difficulties in implementing an effective research program on the water resources of the Congo Basin, it is therefore imperative to design a mechanism to address this need. It is in this context that the Congo Basin Water Resources Research Center (CRREBaC) was created.

This research center comes at the right time, that is, when the countries bordering the Congo Basin are facing issues of lack of information to develop a sustainable water resource management strategy and find appropriate solutions to the various water transfer requests they are receiving.

Through this website, you will discover the Congo Basin Water Resources Research Center (CRREBaC), which aims to be a framework for collaboration, awareness, and mobilization to ensure the promotion and preservation of the Congo Basin's water resources. This will be achieved through research, information sharing, knowledge management, and capacity building.