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The Senegalo-Mauritanian Aquifer Basin is the most important in West Africa; 4 international locations have now agreed to cooperate on sharing it peaceably, setting a template for the world
Ministers of the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal signed a joint declaration September 29, 2021, to advance transboundary cooperation within the Senegal-Mauritanian Aquifer Basin (SMAB).
The 4 West African international locations have, by the declaration, agreed to ascertain a authorized and institutional framework for cooperation on SMAB, in keeping with the United Nations Financial Fee for Europe (UNECE) Water Conference.
This could be the primary such mechanism in West Africa and pave the way in which for strengthened collaboration on shared groundwater assets worldwide, an announcement by the UNECE mentioned.
The Senegalo-Mauritanian aquifer basin is the most important basin within the Atlantic margin of north-west Africa, having an space of 350,000 sq. kilometres.
Greater than 24 million inhabitants of the area are depending on it for consuming water and different wants. This consists of the capitals of Guinea Bissau and Senegal, particularly Bissau and Dakar.
Some 80 per cent of the populations of the 4 international locations which have signed the declaration, rely on the SMAB.
Simply 24 of the 153 international locations that share 286 transboundary rivers, lakes and 592 transboundary aquifers, have operational preparations in place for all their transboundary waters.
That is in keeping with the Progress on Transboundary Water Cooperation: international standing of SDG indicator 6.5.2 and acceleration wants, 2021 by UNECE and UNESCO, launched August 2021.
That is in distinction with the UN-mandated Sustainable Growth Objectives’ imaginative and prescient to make sure that all these waters are coated by operational preparations by 2030.
The speed of progress due to this fact must quadruple, Olga Algayerova, UNECE govt secretary, mentioned.
She was quoted whereas talking on Day 1 of the ninth session of the Assembly of Events (MOP9) to the UNECE Water Conference, the place the declaration was signed.
Senegal, upon accession to the UNECE Water Conference in 2018, had requested for such a declaration, the Earth Negotiations Bulletin of the Worldwide Institute for Sustainable Growth (IISD), mentioned.
The Water Conference Secretariat, along with the Geneva Water Hub and the Worldwide Groundwater Assets Evaluation Centre, subsequently facilitated the declaration.
The declaration was facilitated by the, and adopted the request from Senegal made upon accession to the Water Conference in 2018, Sep 29 2021
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