The working visit of the chair on the Mekrou Project

During his stay in Ouagadougou, the chair met with the staff of the Executive Secretariat on the review of the progress in 2013, the planned activities for 2014, the preparations for the Steering Committee meeting on 27 and 28 March 2014 in Conakry, the preparation of the launching workshop for the Mékrou project planned from 17 to 21 March 2014. This new project will be implemented by GWP- WA with some of its partners in the transboundary Mekrou river basin between Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger.
It is in this context that the Chair accompanied by the Executive Secretary, Mr. Dam MOGBANTE and the Project Manager, Mr. Corneille AHOUANSOU went to Niamey from 5 to 7 February 2014 to meet the different partners to have working sessions with the CWP Niger, AGRHYMET, the Niger Basin Authority (NBA- the Mékrou belongs to NBA), ACMAD, the Directorate of Water Resources, the Secretary General of the Ministry in charge of Water of Niger, in particular to introduce the Mékrou project and pave the way for the ownership and effective collaboration.
These meetings went well and allowed to exchange particularly on the need to develop forecasting stations in the basin, to share synergies with projects running in the  area to achieve the objectives, to formally designate the Mékrou project Focal Point. All partners have expressed a desire to participate at the highest level in the launching workshop of the Mékrou Project and their willingness to take ownership of the project documents in order to provide quality inputs for a consensual document. It came out clearly the necessity for the NBA to take a lead role in the project.
GWP / WA thanked the NBA for the constancy of the participation of its representative to the Steering Committee of GWP / WA and the important role he plays.
The Niger CWP intends to hold as soon as possible its General Assembly in order to define a mechanism for its involvement in the project implementation.