The European Union and its regional partners have launched activities of the Secretariat of new Trilateral Lake Kivu and Ruzizi River Basin Authority-ABAKIR’.
The launch was held Wednesday 12th December 2012 at the Ministry of Natural Resources in Kigali.
Three Ministers in charge of Water Resources Management in Burundi, DRC and Rwanda have jointly decided to call for financial assistance from EU in order to have this Authority in place, starting with a transitional Secretariat.
The project values 2,102,620 Euros and it is a 2-year project that will be focusing on all the necessary steps prior to the final establishment of the Authority.
The ABAKIR Team will immediately focus on revising the existing regulations on the water management (including its resources and uses).
A detailed inventory of the resource will consider all the socio-economic aspects of the Lake Kivu and Ruzizi River Basin, including energy, transport, tourism, agriculture, etc.
The Team will be very active in the region, informing all concerned parties on the importance and absolute necessity of having in place a dynamic Basin Authority, seeking for regional harmonisation of existing and planned development. Several regional and international partnerships are foreseen.
“The EU contribution to this project, being 1.5 M€, comes from the General Budget of the European Union. The project will be instrumental in putting in place all structures before the final installation of the Authority. Project achievements will send positive signals to potential investors, particularly in the energy-water related sector.” said Michel ARRION, Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Rwanda.
In its long list of activities, the new ABAKIR Team will equally develop and put in place a regional control system that will help monitoring the qualitative and quantitative information on the waters of the Basin.
The transitional Authority will take office in the premises of the CEPGL in Rubavu.
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