Germany will disburse $35million for implementation of various projects in the Lake Victoria basin.
The funds will also cover capacity building for technical staff attached to Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) and pandemic preparedness in the region.
The agreement for the technical support was signed here yesterday by the East African Community (EAC) Peter Mathuki and the German ambassador to Tanzania and the EAC Ms Regine Hess.
"The agreement will explore how to tap the economic potential of Lake Victoria and its vast basin", Dr. Mathuki told journalists after inking the deal on Monday.
He described Lake Victoria and its basin as a designated regional economic growth zone which already generates approximately 40 percent of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of all EAC partner states.
"It's a crucial resource for the economic,ecological and social development of about 40 million people living in its catchment area", he explained.
The shared lake and its basin, which extend to non-riparian countries of Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan, is rich in fisheries, water resources and maritime transport.
According to the agreement, the first component of the project worth $ 3.8 million will be launched in January next year.
It aims at strengthening the capacities of LVBC, an institution of the EAC, to enable it fulfill its mandate in the areas of Integrated Water Resource Management.
This will include improving horizontal cooperation between LVBC, the water administrations and the river basin organisations of the EAC partner states.'
The second financial cooperation component valued at $ 17.3 million will focus on promoting further economic development of the region around the 69,000 square kilometre Lake Victoria.
Dr. Mathuki added that the support will enhance the management the basin
as well as contribute to increased water quality and water safety in the lake, the largest freshwater body in Africa.
“This financing will play a huge part in contributing to environment development as we move towards exploiting the potential of this resource for the benefit of the Community,” he pointed out.
The third component, estimated at $ 13.9 million, will expand the
ongoing EAC-German cooperation in pandemic prevention and strengthening of disease surveillance and control.
German ambassador Ms Hess noted that by establishing a regional network of supranational and specialised reference laboratories, the EAC pandemic preparedness capacities will be scaled higher and the EAC resilience towards future health challenges will be strengthened
“This gives the population access to a wide range of diagnostic services. Future outbreaks of disease can be identified at an early stage and epidemics and pandemics can be better prevented and controlled,” she said.
Germany, one of the leading development partners to EAC, has provided the region with procurement of mobile laboratories since the outbreak of Covid-19 early last year.
According to the EAC officials, the mobile labs in the six partner states have
significantly reduced the turn-around time for testing from the initial 72 hours to 10 hours on average.
Currently, more than 560,000 COVID-19 samples have been analysed, and 103 experts trained in the mobile laboratory while data collection for COVID-19 rapid diagnostics tests validation and sequencing studies have already started in Partner States.
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