Panj Amu River Basin Programme delivers practical training course for students

Thirty-two students from the Hydraulics and Hydraulic Structures Department at Kabul Polytechnic University recently took part in a five-day training course organised by the Panj Amu River Basin Programme team. The programme, managed by Landell Mills and funded by the EU, aims to foster equitable and sustainable water management practices. Training future water management experts is one component of this goal.

The course helped equip the students with practical lessons to complement their studies and enhance their field work. They learnt how to design a gated off-take structure and a weir on permeable foundations. They also learnt about hydraulic, irrigation and social parameters to be taken into account in the design process. Students were also provided with a good practice guide and trained in the use of an Excel spreadsheet, which was formulated to generate the data required for the design process.

In total, forty-nine students have benefitted from the training to date. The first module on the hydraulic design of a cross regulator was delivered in a previous training session in March 2016.

The course, and the training tools provided, are expected to be extremely useful for future hydraulic structure design, both in the Panj-Amu region and in river basins across the country. The programme aims to continue to provide this kind of training on an ongoing basis.