The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) announced that Mauritania has officially joined the international convention on protecting water resources shared between states, becoming the sixty-second country to ratify the UN framework.
The accession reflects the strategic importance of the Senegalo-Mauritanian aquifer basin, a key source of water for people in the country's eastern and southern regions, which also supports extensive pastoral activities on which livestock depends.
With this step, all four states linked to the basin, Mauritania, Senegal, the Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, are now members of the convention, providing a legal and institutional basis for coordinating efforts to use and protect its water resources.
The UN commission hopes the development will help launch negotiations among the countries concerned on a specific agreement for managing the basin, ensuring shared and sustainable use of the water and strengthening regional cooperation on the related challenges.
