Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa water, Sanitation Mar- Apr 2015 Vol.10 No.2 | Page 5

NEWS in brief
Angola
Benguela Decrees 24 Hours of Mourning in Province
Benguela — The
governor of the
southern Benguela
province,
Isaac
Francisco dos Anjos,
Friday declared a
24-hour mourning
over the death of
Flooding in Angola’s capital of Luanda
66 citizens victim of
heavy rains that hit
the region on 11 March.
The tragedy hit mainly the municipalities of Lobito,
Catumbela and Benguela.
In a press release the government expressed solidarity and
dismay to the family of the rain victims.
In addition to the sixty-six people died in Lobito, among
adults and children, the rain also destroyed 119 houses, 8
schools and 42 houses without coverage.
Over 100 families were left homeless.
Bornito de Sousa said the President of the Republic,
through the Civil House, has expressed condolences to
the families and made available an “emergency” fund of
approximately 100 million kwanzas to meeting the most
pressing situations in the first instance.
The ministerial delegation appointed by the PR, José
Eduardo dos Santos, will provide support to the families
and provincial authorities and present the condolences and
the gesture of solidarity for the tragic occurrence in the
municipalities already referenced.
He guided the government of Benguela to register
populations living in areas at risk and allotment for new
areas for the resettlement of their affected families, as
initially there will be distributed tents.
The ministerial committee which includes the ministers
of Interior, Construction, Social Welfare, Health and
Education evaluated in Lobito the damage caused by
rains that fell early on Thursday in the affecting particular
Lobito Velho, Canata , Liro and Bela Vista.

Benin
Launch of National Water Information System in Benin
On 4 February the water sector in Benin launched a National
Water Information System (SNIEAU). The system was
officially launched during a workshop for decision makers
at the ‘Direction Générale de l’Eau du Benin’ in Cotonou.

Around Africa

Re p r e s e n t a t ive s
from
different
ministries as well
as experts from
the
National
Water
Institute
(Institut National
de l’Eau, INE)
and international
experts
from
COWI/IGIP and
UNESCO-IHE
participated in the
workshop.
Improve intersectoral communication
SNIEAU (Systeme National d’Information sur l’Eau)
is a Spatial Data Infrastructure that has been developed
with the expertise of Dr. Hans van der Kwast, Lecturer
in Ecohydrological modeling at UNESCO-IHE and Claire
Lelong of COWI/IGIP.
The online platform is accessible through http://www.
snieau.bj.
SNIEAU envisions that by 2016, Benin has a unifying
data system and reliable and accessible information for
better integrated water resources management through
an exchange network between participating institutions
in order to improve intersectoral communication for a
synergy of actions towards a harmonious and sustainable
development.
Data exchange through SNIEAU will play a key role in the
development of a Delta Plan for the Oueme Delta and
Lake Nokoue region, that is currently being developed in
the framework of the Multi-Annual Strategic Plan (MASP)
2014-2017 funded by the Dutch Embassy in Benin.
The platform has been implemented by Upande, a Kenyan
SME specialised in GIS and WebGIS solutions.

Botswana
Khama Assures Shorobe Residents
Maun — President Lt Gen.
Seretse Khama Ian Khama
has assured residents of
Shorobe in Ngamiland
District that water crisis
in their village would be
addressed.
President
Khama
was
responding to complaints
President Khama Ian made during a kgotla
meeting he addressed this
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • March - April 2015

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