Jimmy Katambo

SGSP CANDIDATES PROFILING Q&A

17. You were chosen as a beneficiary of this scholarship, out of several applicants across the SADC region. How does this make you feel?

1. I feel blessed, privileged and humbled to be a beneficiary of this scholarship, out of several applicants across the SADC region. Blessed and privileged in the sense that God chose me out of many who could have taken up this opportunity. I thank God for this opportunity and I will be dedicated to using it very well.

17. What motivated you to take up studies in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)?

1.  What motivated me was the fact that this program is practical. It is dealing with issues that affect our lives every day. Water is life and this program is dealing with life’s challenges that affect many people in the SADC region and the world as whole. I would like to be part of the solution in dealing with water challenges and climate change in our nation, region, continent and world as a whole. I will contribute to this goal by providing solutions that will be obtained through research in the Faculty of Computing and Informatics by doing a PhD therein.

17. What do you see as some of the greatest challenges being experienced in the IWRM sector, particurlarly in your home country?

1. In my country, Zambia, we have a lot of rivers and lakes, yet communities still have       poor water supply, poor water systems. Hence, humans have a scarcity of water supply to their homes and sadly, many local farmers find it even difficult to have enough water for the animals to drink during the hot/dry season. Apart from the traditional existing methods and technological systems available, my research will add value to or contribute to the development of new or better water systems that make use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which could change the narrative for the country for both its people and livestock.

17. When it is all done and dusted, what would you like the impact of your research project to be?

1. To add value to the already existing systems and traditional methods and to impact the local people and communities in our nation, region, continent and the world as a whole. To contribute to the development of technological systems that apply AI in order to help in the preservation of the environment for the betterment of present and future generations.