Benin Water Program OmiDelta
Joop de Schutter, partner at Water Partner Foundation, is assigned to the multi annual cooperation program for water and development in Bénin, West Africa as a Senior Advisor on Integrated Water Resources Management and Delta Planning. Since January 2017 this program is implemented under the title OmiDelta. The core activities of OmiDelta are water supply and sanitation, both rural and semi-urban and implementation of integrated water resources management principles on a national and decentralized level, with emphasis on the development of a delta plan for the lower Ouémé ad the Lac Nokoué.
The multi annual cooperation for water and development already started in a first phase in 2007. Emphasis was on water supply and sanitation in both the rural and urban environment. Starting 2011 new areas of attention were added including IWRM (following the coming into place of a new national law on water), Water and Food Security and the collection and treatment of urban fecal sludge. The current OmiDelta program is working on IWRM (including for example delta planning, development of a new national database and information system and institutional development), rural and semi urban water supply, sanitation and hygiene, capacity development and it has special investment programs for water related initiatives coming out of the communities (as a result of the decentralization policies for the sector), NGOs and the private sector. Complementary to the OmiDelta program the VIA Water innovation program is active in Bénin with a number of projects under implementation including harvesting and processing of water hyacinth and groundwater monitoring and licensing.
An important role in the development of the "aid and trade' policy in practice is played by the technical communication platform Netherlands Bénin where business opportunities between the two countries are assessed and developed through market studies, feasibility studies, study tours and match making events. The platform is jointly managed by the Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) and the National Water Partnership (PNE) Bénin in close cooperation with the Netherlands Embassy in Cotonou and the Netherlands African Business Council (NABC). Thanks to the efforts of the platform interest for business development between the countries is growing and the list of participants to the platform is growing.
For more information, please contact: Joop de Schutter