By: Julia Heita
The Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment, as-well as the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) this afternoon signed a tripartite MoU for a Technical Cooperation on Groundwater Management and Combating Drought with French Geological Survey (BRGM).
The technical cooperation between the BRGM, MAWLR and MEFT is aimed at increasing access to knowledge and strengthening the capacity of the Namibian Government in water management and drought control.
The two-year project consists of three main tasks namely; comprehensive training programme on hydrogeology, assessment of climate change impact on aquifer recharge in the Omusati and Kunene regions as well as the elaboration of a planning map of groundwater abstraction in these two regions.
The environment ministry’s executive director, Teofilus Nghitila said that Namibia is regularly in a crisis situation regarding drought.
He said that the AFD and the BGRM have committed to support Namibia to carry out the underground water studies, exploration and management in both the Kunene and Omusati regions.
“The AFD has so far far availed sees funding via a grant mechanism of 500, 00.00 Euros toward this exercise,” said Nghitila.
The director explained that the entire project implementation is estimated to cost about 8 million Euros.
Agricultural ministry’s executive director Percy Misika applauded the AFD for establishing the “2050 Facility” in assisting countries implement the Paris Agreement.
