Transaqua Begins: A Wonderful Step Forward for Africa!

re posted from                                    Africa and the World

Transaqua Begins: A Wonderful Step Forward for Africa!

Transaqua Begins: A Wonderful Step Forward for Africa!

16 October 2018

Today a huge step forward was taken for the Africa continent with the initial funding for a feasibility study of the Transaqua water project. Transaqua, a transformative inter-basin water transfer project to re-charge the shrinking Lake Chad, was first proposed over thirty years ago, to create a super-economic development zone between the nations of the Lake Chad Basin and Great Lakes Region. Expanding this lake is crucial for the Sahel and will help to turn back the desert. The success of Transaqua, a Pan African infrastructure project, will be bring peace stability to Nigeria, and to the other member states of the Lake Chad Basin, and as well create new levels of economic wealth. It will contribute to the industrialization of Africa, and should become part of the African Union’s “Agenda 2063.” I am proud that I have been energetically advocating this project around the world, especially in Africa and in the United States.

All Africans, and friends of Africa should rejoice at this small, but potentially giant step forward for the people of Africa.

Today, October 16, 2018- A MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) for the initial funding of the feasibility study for the Transaqua project was signed in Rome by the Italian government and the Lake Chad Basin Commission. Francesco La Camera, director general of the Italian Environment ministry, and Mamman Nuhu, Executive Secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, signed today a document that certifies an Italian government grant of 1.5 million Euros to finance the feasibility study for the project refill Lake Chad and build a water, transport, electricity and agro-industrial infrastructure in central Africa, developed by the Italian firm Bonifica more than 35 years ago.

The formal signature is following the decision announced last February 29 at the International Lake Chad Conference in Abuja, Nigeria. There will be further bureaucratic steps before the grant can be delivered and the feasibility study can start.

“It is a historic step”, said Bonifica CEO Romina Boldrini. “Italy is giving money for Transaqua. Everybody is expecting Bonifica to start the feasibility study now”.

Marcello Vichi, the head of the Bonifica team that drafted the original Transaqua study in the seventies, said he is “very satisfied” with the agreement. “Finally, after so many years, Africans and Europeans understood the importance of the project. Now we have to make up that lost time”.

Read:  Save Lake Chad With Transaqua: Presidents Roosevelt and Nkrumah Would Concur

Source: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld

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