THE WHITE VOLTA SUB-BASIN - Sustainable Irrigation Development in the White Volta Sub-Basin - page 12

The process of establishing the Volta Basin Authority began with the
ministerial endorsement and signing of an agreement to form the Volta Basin
Technical Committee (VBTC) in November of 2004 (WRC, 2004). On 6
December 2005, in Ouagadougou, the Ministers in charge of water from
Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Togo signed a
‚Memorandum of Understanding to establish a Volta Basin Authority
(VBA)‛ (Opoku-Ankomah et al., 2006). On the 17th of July 2006, the
Ministers in charge of water at a meeting in Lomé, approved a Convention
and Statutes for the Volta Basin Authority (VBA), with its headquarters in
Ouagadougou, and appointed an Interim Executive Directorate. The first
Assembly of Heads of State of the Volta Basin was held on the 19th of
January 2007 at Ouagadougou where the VBA convention was signed. On
the 16th of November 2007, the first meeting of the Council of Ministers in
Ouagadougou signed the statutes of the VBA. The Volta Basin Authority
Convention has been ratified by all riparian states except Cote d'Ivoire
(source: http://www.abv-volta.org/about/historique , accessed 17-10-2010).
Mandate and Organisation of the Volta Basin Authority
The mandate of the VBA is to:
1. Promote permanent consultation tools among the parties for the
development of the basin;
2. Promote the implementation of integrated water resources
management and the equitable distribution of the benefits resulting
from their various utilizations;
3. Authorize the development of infrastructure and projects planned by
the stakeholders and which could have substantial impact on the
water resources of the basin;
4. Develop joint projects and works;
5. Contribute to poverty alleviation, the sustainable development of the
Parties in the Volta basin, and for better socioeconomic integration
in the sub-region.
The permanent administrative organs are:
1. The Assembly of Heads of State and Government;
2. The Council of Ministers in charge of Water Resources;
3. The Forum of the Parties involved in the Volta basin development;
4. The Committee of Experts;
5. The Executive Directorate of the Authority.
The VBA is in its infant stages, as the Volta Basin office in Ouagadougou is
currently being setup. The VBA has therefore not shown any impact on the
Water Resources Management in the Volta Basin since its inception.