In his PhD dissertation research defended on November, 29, 2022,Lusanjo Henery Mfwango showed how to dissect and study the impact of Climate and Land use/cover change on the water balance components of Ruvu River (main Ruvu) at Kibungo Sub-catchment of Upper Ruvu catchment in eastern Tanzania”. Concomitantly, He also explored the factors affecting water availability by influencing the hydrological processes of the catchments, eventually impacting environmental and socioeconomic activities.

During his presentation Lusanjo said the study goal is to identify the factors that have resulted in decreasing annual streamflow. This also includes classifying practices which provide good results in runoff reduction compared to widely known and largely implemented practices.

The research finding revealed that changes in climate and land use/cover change will have an impact on future water balance components at Kibungo sub-catchment with a significant impact observed more from climate change.

The research recommended that Terracing practice provides good results in runoff reduction compared to contouring and Strip cropping.

His thesis was supervised by Prof. Tenalem Ayenew, Professor of Hydrogeology and Water Management at Addis Ababa University, and Prof. Henery F. Mahoo, Professor of Agricultural Engineering, Sokoin University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania.

The examiners were Prof. Assefa Melese, Professor and Graduate Program Director, Institute of Environment, Department of Earth and Environment, Florida International University, Miami, USA, and Dr. Desse Nidaw Associate Proffessor of Hydrology, School of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University and the session was chaired by Prof.Feleke Zewge, Director of ACEWM.

Lusajo Henery Mfwango received his Bsc degree in food Science and Technology from Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania in 2006, and Master of Technology degree in Irrigation Water Management, from Indian Institute of Technology IIT-Roorkee (Uttarakhand, India) in 2012. He worked as Chemist II from 2007-2010 and Chemist I from 2010-2014 in the Ministry of Water, Government of Tanzania. Later in 2014 He joined Ministry of Water, Water institute of Tanzania wherein there He still is a staff member. In 2018,Lusajojoined ACEWM to pursue his PhD in Water Management with a specialization in Hydrology and Water Resource Management.

Some of Lusajo’s publications include;

• Lusajo Henry Mfwango, TenalemAyenew, Henry F. Mahoo, Impacts of climate and land use/cover changes on streamflow at Kibungo sub-catchment, Tanzania, Heliyon, Volume 8, Issue 11,2022, e11285, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11285.
• Lusajo Henry Mfwango, Clarance Paul Kisiki, TenalemAyenew, Henry F. Mahoo, “The impact of land use/cover change on surface runoff at Kibungo sub-catchment of Upper Ruvu catchment in Tanzania, Environmental Challenges” Volume 7, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2022.100466