Africa-Press – Tanzania. GERMANY has sealed a 35 million US dollars (about 80bn/-) agreement with the East African Community, which is set to support the Lake Victoria basin initiative.
The support by the Federal Republic of Germany seeks to support full utilisation of the water resources, which is shared among some EAC partner states.
“Such a support will have a tremendous impact on people’s livelihoods,” explained Dr Peter Mathuki, EAC Secretary General yesterday, shortly after sealing the agreement.
Located in the upstream part of the Nile River Basin, the Lake Victoria Basin is shared among five EAC countries, with a total area of about 251,000 square kilometers.
The Lake itself, which covers an area of about 68,800 square kilometers, is shared among Tanzania which enjoys 51 per cent of the resource, Uganda (43 per cent) and Kenya (6 per cent).
The agreement will also support EAC pandemic preparedness, according to Dr Mathuki, noting that much as the community was still facing the Covid- 19 challenge, it was important to keep the community prepared against future pandemics.
“This support will go along a network of labs in the region,” he hinted.
Part of the 80bn/- which comes through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) will also be channeled towards enhancing and supporting the capacity of EAC institutions.
In her rejoinder, Germany Ambassador to Tanzania, who is also credited to the EAC, Regine Hess said the support is geared towards economic cooperation.
She underscored the importance of supporting Lake Victoria basin, saying the water body played a crucial role to the economies of countries surrounding it.
“Nearly 40 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of such countries is generated through the lake, the programme entails at improving it even further,” she disclosed.
Such a component will focus on water safety, quality as well as economic activities around the lake.
Elaborating on the pandemic preparedness component, the envoy said it was a continuation of the Mobile Laboratory Project, which had a number of labs and test kits deployed to all EAC partner states in a bid to detect and respond to highly infectious diseases such as Covid-19.
The arrangement saw each partner state receive a four wheel drive vehicle fitted with laboratory and ICT equipment, as well as all the necessary consumables for a fully functional laboratory with the capacity to conduct tests for Ebola and the Coronavirus in addition to other pathogens.
“We have to step up our preparedness to detect future pandemics, so that the consequences will not be as harsh as that of the killer virus,” added Ms Hess.
The EAC and the Federal Republic of Germany are in a few weeks’ time due to negotiate on a new phase of the cooperation between the two parties.
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