Addis Ababa: Ethiopia and Netherlands have signed a 45 million euros grant agreement to finance Basin Management Support for Resilient Inclusive Growth and Harmonized Transformation for the national Integrated Water Resource Management Program (BRIGHT). Finance Minister, Ahmed Shide and Ambassador of the Netherlands to Ethiopia, Henk Jan Bakker signed the agreement.
The grant shall be used to improve Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Abbay, Awash, Rift Valley, Omo-Gibe and Tekezie river basins, according to Ministry of Finance. The project specifically aims to strengthen the technical, managerial, regulatory, infrastructural and logistical capacities of the Ministry of Water and Energy and the selected Basin Administration Offices as well as concerned regional bureaus in IWRM. It also provides support to designing and have in-place a well-functioning Basin Information System for IWRM and generate additional evidence to fill knowledge gaps in the selected river basins.
The grant finance will also use to support the revision/preparation of basin plans and facilitate their implementation by supporting priority and high impact IWRM projects in the target basins; and to establish climate-smart IWRM learning sub-basins and watersheds in the target basins. BRIGHT aims to contribute to improvements of resilience and reduction of vulnerability of the population to drought and climate change in Ethiopia.
