Hydrologists Without Borders

Through a cooperative program with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES), the U.S. Water Partnership (USWP) has deployed U.S. hydrologists and water experts abroad for short-term consultancies, training programs, and public diplomacy missions. The program, termed by one expert participant as “Hydrologists without Borders,” helps U.S. embassies build cooperation and support for critical water issues in key countries, and has served as a new avenue for U.S. embassies to market U.S. approaches and technologies and engage diplomatically on the U.S. Government Global Water Strategy’s objectives.

The Water Experts Program has sent 15 American experts to work on projects around the world. These experts have worked on improving transboundary water management in the Great Lakes region of Africa, the Sava River Basin in the Balkans, the Lower Mekong River, and Lake Titicaca, bordering Peru and Bolivia, while also assisting groundwater mapping and management in South Asia, southern Africa, Indonesia, and Morocco. They have also supported efforts to assess watersheds in important river systems in Kenya, Ghana, and Indonesia; treat wastewater in Ethiopia; control erosion in the Republic of the Congo; and build drought resilience and study climate change impacts across both northern and southern Africa.

The program has drawn from the best in American expertise from across government, the private sector, academic institutions, and nonprofits. Our partners have included the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy, Colorado State University, the University of Nebraska, San Diego State University, Louisiana State University, the University of Delaware, and AquaStrategies.