Governo Italiano
Pretoria, October 21, 2016 – A few days after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Italy and South Africa for cooperation on water resources, the first Joint Committee was held today in Pretoria, starting the cooperation between the two countries. The delegation of the Ministry of the Environment, led by the Director General Francesco La Camera, met a large delegation of the South African Department of Water and Sanitation, led by the Director General Sifiso Mkhize. During the meeting, preceded by a brief bilateral between the General Managers of the two Ministries, the South Africans expressed their intention to proceed rapidly with the definition of the projects to be evaluated and implemented under the Memorandum of Understanding signed on October 18, 2016.
During the meeting, the documents that will regulate the cooperation between the two countries were discussed and approved, (rules of procedure, guiding principles for the implementation of bilateral cooperation, financial agreement).
Furthermore, the medium-term work plan was approved. This provides for the following areas of collaboration:
- governance of the water system, in particular review of the Regulatory Framework for water management;
- capacity building, in particular training and awareness-raising initiatives on issues related to the integrated water system to be provided to the institutional subjects involved;
- joint projects, to be implemented through the selection of Pilot Projects of a strategic nature, aimed, for example, at the construction of a plant for the reuse of urban waste water and the creation of an Optimum Territorial Area, (ATO), for integrated water management.
