The Regional workshop for a research platform on Lake Kivu is progressing and on its second day in Rubavu District in the Western Province.

The main objectives of this workshop are to create a platform where the local researchers and academicians from reputable regional institutions can cooperate, join their efforts and share knowledge, to promote the scientific research on the lake at a regional level (Burundi, DR. Congo and Rwanda) and to increase the local capacity to monitor the Lake for sustainable socio-economic benefits of either communities.

The regional work shop will facilitate to create a research platform on Lake Kivu that will bring together scientists and determine the joint forces to initiate a research network.

The workshop is attended by researchers, scholars, academicians and technicians from different institutions of Rwanda, DRC and observers from the Republic of Burundi

This important workshop was organized by Rwanda Energy Group (REG) specifically the Kivu Monitoring Program (KMP) in conjunction with CEPGL, to build a constructive and professional research atmosphere for easy monitoring of Lake Kivu resources especially gas extraction for power generation among member states.

Rwanda started the extraction of methane gas from Lake Kivu since October 2008. Thus, Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure (MININFRA) through Rwanda Energy Group (REG) established the Lake Kivu Monitoring Program to check the impacts of methane extraction on the lake’s stability and environment and on the safety of the population of the entire region around the Lake’s vicinity.

This program will enhance an intense monitoring and further research to get a robust baseline of the lake before the full-scale extraction and to fully understand these special features of the lake.

The different researchers from D.R. Congo and Rwanda higher Institutions of learning presented their current research on Lake Kivu as a tool that could help to learn more about the current analysis performed in the various laboratories and about the current capacity building programs proposed in the different institutions.