Mid-Term Coordination Meeting for the Regional Project “RAF7018

Mid-Term Coordination Meeting for the Regional Project “RAF7018 Applying radiation technology to assess sediment transport for the Management of Coastal Infrastructures" from 3-7 Dec 2018-Zanzibar

20 National Project Counterparts from 10 African Member states of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) participating in the Regional TC Project RAF7018 gathered at the Ocean View Hotel, Zanzibar from 03 to 07 December 2018, to review the progress made by participating Member States of the project on radiotracer and nucleonic control systems (NCS) applications for sediment transport measurement.
The Meeting is organized by The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania through Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Tanzania Atomic Energy Commission and the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar in collaboration with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Sediment transport is a common problem in many African Member States. Radiotracers and sealed source techniques have been used extensively for the investigation of industrial systems as well as for sediment or pollutants transport. The investigation of sediment transport in sea, dams and rivers is crucial for civil engineering and littoral protection and management. Radioactive methods, radiotracers, natural radioactivity, sealed sources and nucleonic gauges can help in investigating sediment dynamics providing important parameters for better designing,
maintaining and optimizing civil engineering structures and objects in these areas. Tracer technology complements more traditional methods (current metering, turbidity measurements and modelling) and is the only explicit method of direct assessment of sediment transport pathways.
In Tanzania Sediment transport is one of the major concerns, and the problems have been reported along virtually the entire coastline of Tanzania, which encompasses about 800 km. Some areas are more affected than others and a majority of those areas are found in the vicinity of Dar es Salaam, in the area south of Mtwara-Lindi and north of Tanga.
In the Course of the week, each Project Counterpart will present a report of the work done on the level and the capacity of the tracers and NCS applications including potential stakeholders, results achieved, shortcomings and future plan of activities under the national and the regional programmes.
The meeting was officiated by Dr. Omari Amiri, the Director of Deep Sea AuthorityZanzibar, and attended by the participant from Algeria, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan, and United Republic of Tanzania.