Ziguinchor, Oct 1 (APS) – The general director of the Office of Lakes and Watercourses (OLAC), Diarra Sow, announced, Tuesday, the establishment of new surface water mobilization projects to develop more agricultural activities in the regions of Ziguinchor, Sédhiou, Kolda and Tambacounda.
”Here in the southern zone we have quite a few structuring projects that OLAC has initiated, in particular the development of the waters of the Casamance River and small watersheds. And these development projects which are under instruction in the southern part of the country, have as essential objectives the mobilization of surface water resources for the development of agriculture,” she declared.
Diarra Sow spoke thus during a meeting of the Regional Development Committee (CRD) devoted to the management and planning of waterways in the natural region of Casamance.
Taking the example of the Casamance River, she indicated that “technical, environmental and social studies have been launched”, specifying that “if we manage to implement these projects, they would promote local development and the development of socio-economic activities”.
To fight against salinization, OLAC also plans to “promote retention dams to stop the rise of the saline tongue which comes from the Casamance River and sometimes from the Gambia River”, indicated Diarra Sow.
”If we have water almost everywhere on the land, it would promote desalination and this would therefore allow agricultural implementation in seventy thousand hectares of land which are all around the watershed of the Casamance River’ ‘, she explained.
For his part, the governor of the Ziguinchor region, Mor Talla Tine, praised “the materialization of these development projects for the Casamance River”, which, according to him, will ultimately “create the conditions for the development of “agricultural activities while contributing to the restoration of the ecosystem”.
IM/MK/OID
