East African Community
PRESS RELEASE
KENYA, TANZANIA SIGN MoU FOR JOINT MANAGEMENT OF LAKES CHALA, JIPE AND UMBA RIVER ECOSYSTEMS
14th February 2013, Kisumu, KENYA:
The Governments
of the Republic of Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania have signed
a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the joint transboundary
management of Lakes
Chala and Jipe and the Umba River ecosystems. It was signed during the
session of the Coordination Committee of the 11th Sectoral Council of Ministers for Lake Victoria Basin taking place at Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu, Kenya.
The
MoU was signed by Mr. John Rao Nyaoro, the Director of Water Resources
on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water and
Irrigation, Republic of Kenya and Eng. Christopher Sayi, Permanent
Secretary, Ministry of Water, United Republic of Tanzania.
The
MoU is meant to establish a Joint Cooperative Framework for sustainable
development and management of the ecosystems and help to
set up institutional an arrangement for the management of the proposed
programme. It also states several obligations of the Lake Victoria Basin
Commission including the coordinating programme development and
implementation; promoting the sharing of experiences
and lessons learned; and providing technical support and advice.
The
LVBC Secretariat will use experiences and lessons learned from the
Transboundary Water for Biodiversity and Human Health in the
Mara River Basin (TWBHH-MRB) funded by USAID East Africa and the Mount
Elgon Regional Ecosystem Conservation Programme (MERECP) funded by the
Governments of the Royal Kingdom of Norway and Sweden to facilitate
preparation and implementation of Lakes Chala,
Jipe and Umba river ecosystems.
The
two Partner States agreed to cooperate in the areas of water supply and
sanitation, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM),
natural resources, environmental and ecosystems management, land use
practices, capacity building, data and information sharing, research and
development.
Speaking
at the signing ceremony, the LVBC Executive Secretary, Dr. Canisius
Kanangire, noted that the signing of the MoU had set a
good example in management of transboundary ecosystems in Partner
States. Dr. Kanangire expressed the LVBC Secretariat’s commitment to
support the implementation of the MoU “as will be directed by the
Sectoral Council of Ministers for Lake Victoria Basin.”
Lakes
Chala, Jipe and Umba river is one of the East African Community
transboundary ecosystems shared by Republic of Kenya and the United
Republic of Tanzania. This ecosystem is important to communities who
use it for fisheries, domestic water supply, livestock and wildlife
management of Tsavo West National Park in Kenya and Mkomazi National
Park in Tanzania.
The
ecosystems have been faced with management challenges linked to human
activities; poor community involvement in conservation and lack of joint
management plan
and joint institutional framework to manage it. These challenges have
led to the increase in salinity; reduction in fisheries, fish size and
increased poverty, leading to migration of communities.
Caption DSC 0104.JPG
Left exchanging MoU is John Nyaoro – Director of Water Resources Kenya
Right exchanging MoU is Eng. Christopher Sayi – Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Tanzania
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