Support to the creation of a transboundary basin organization for the Volta
The Volta, a large West African river basin, had not yet a Basin Authority. A Volta Basin Technical Committee (VBTC) was set up in July 2004 and held its second meeting, from 20 to 24 June 2005. The International Office for Water supported this intergovernmental consultation body in its mandate for establishing the necessary conditions for creating a Volta Basin Organization for Integrated Water Resources Management, including ecosystems and other related basin resources.
IOWater assisted the VBTC in two steps:
- Support to the 2nd meeting of the VBTC’s Technical Committee in close cooperation with the Coordination Unit for Water Resources (CUWR) of the Economic Commission of Western African States (ECOWAS), with experts from each member country of the basin, and from the IWRM group of the European Initiative.
- Technical assistance to the VBTC and member countries with the preparation of an effective implementation of the Basin Authority: statutes / organization chart / identification of human and financial resources / financial mechanisms / inter-country coordination systems / planning processes.
These activities obviously took into account the national strategies for water resources management of the six Member States. They also integrated the parallel programs developed by the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the French Fund for Global Environment and other donors in order to quickly define a suited action plan.