Lesotho will hand over the chairmanship of the Senqu/Orange River Trans-boundary Basin Commission, which it has been holding since the inception of the commission in 2000, to South Africa at a meeting to be held in Cape Town, South Africa later this month. In an interview, the Chairman of the Commission, and the Deputy Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Mr. Khomoatsana Tau, said the chairmanship will be passed to South Africa as per the commission's agreement. He said, "The position will alternate among the members of the commission after every two years to ensure a balance in the sharing of responsibilities as the commission currently does not have secretariat to assist in its programs".

Mr. Tau concluded his term as the chairman of the commission, whose membership comprise members from other three countries, which share the benefits of the Senqu/Orange river system with Lesotho. The three other countries are Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tau took part as a representative of the commission at a Consultative Assembly of a Network of Transboundary Basin Organisation, which was held in France last week, where he chaired a session on Sharing African Experiences on the international network of trans-boundary basin organizations.

He said, from this assembly he came back with better knowledge on the running and management of trans-boundary basin organisation, which he is going to use to enhance development of his commission. After the assembly, he also had the opportunity to go to Germany, where he met with donors of two projects of the Senqu/Orange Basin Commission on Water Resource Master Plan and Feasibility Study of having Permanent Secretariat for the commission, to further discussions on funding of the projects, before coming back to Lesotho last Sunday.

Final discussions and signing of agreements on the matter will be made between the commission and the donors at the Cape Town meeting. Other members of the commission representing Lesotho include Ms Lineo Guni and Mr. Emmanuel Lesoma.

03 December,2002