It was in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital that the Mohammed VI Foundation decided to launch the project to create a training centre for professionals in the field of water and irrigation technologies in Africa.
The buildings of the Water Actors Training Centre in Africa will come off the ground by June 2019. With a surface area of 7000 m2, the centre will have an educational farm, 2 laboratories, 3 workshops and an administrative building. Total project cost: €3 million, fully funded by the Mohammed VI Foundation.
The Moroccan sovereign’s foundation, which encourages sustainable development in Africa, made this announcement during the commemoration of the World Water Day, on March 22, 2018. Consequently, the Ethiopian authorities, through their minister in charge of water, Kebede Garba, welcomed an initiative, “aimed at the sustainable development of African countries within the framework of South-South cooperation”.
A contract entrusted to Seprob
The project will improve water management and the application of new irrigation techniques. Water management represents a major challenge on the African continent, which is becoming crucial in the face of the challenges of climate change, as recalled by the 19th International Congress of the African Water Association (AWA), which held from the 11th to 16th of February 2018 in Bamako, Mali.
To underline this need, Youssef Karni, Counsellor in charge of economic affairs at the Moroccan Embassy in Addis Ababa, stated that food and energy security, as well as environmental preservation and social well-being, depend on good water management.
The construction of this building is entrusted to the Moroccan company Seprob, which has know-how in the construction and management of hydraulic products in Africa and is currently building a cable-stayed bridge in Sidi Maarouf over the Grand Casablanca. The company is owned by a water pipeline company, known in French as Société nouvelle des conduites d’eau (SNE), the SNI (holding company of the royal family), transformed into a pan-African investment fund) and Bouygues, a French construction and real estate giant.
Jean Marie Takouleu
