The Volta Basin Authority, in collaboration with the Ministry of Water, Rural Equipment and Village Water Resources of the Togolese Republic, organized a regional workshop to validate the Water Charter project. from the Volta basin.
The workshop was held from December 12 to 14, 2018, at the Concorde hotel, in Lomé, in the Togolese Republic and brought together the focal points of the Volta Basin Authority (ABV) and operational focal points of the Global Environment Fund (GEF), technical and legal experts from VBA member states, representatives of other basin organizations such as ABN, OMVS and CICOS and representatives of inter-African organizations and international, particularly the West Africa Water Partnership.The opening ceremony was chaired by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Water and Village Hydraulics, Mr. TCHABORE Hatimi, representing the Minister of guardianship.
Reading the opening speech of the Minister, Mr. TCHABORE noted that ” the elaboration of this Charter is essential and urgent for the VBA, in order to ensure” concerted and peaceful management of natural resources and to promote a harmonious development of more than 25 million souls living in this basin with enormous hydro-agro-energy potential ” . The implementation of this Charter, he added, will have to strengthen cooperation between States; cooperation based on solidarity and reciprocity for a sustainable, equitable and coordinated use of the water resources of the Volta basin.
As a reminder, the development of the Volta Basin Water Charter subdivided into three (03) stages, is part of Component 1 of the Project for the Implementation of the Strategic Action Program of the Basin of the Volta (VSIP). The Lomé workshop which devoted the validation of the water charter project marks the end of the second phase and gives the start of the third phase which will be essentially devoted to the actions of popularization, ratification and preparation of draft application texts.
