The AMESD CEMAC THEMA aims to assist governments of the CEMAC Region, extended to the DRC, to use satellite data observation for proper management of water resources in the Central African region. The activities funded are needed to prepare two operational services for the Congo Basin, in a first stage, and Central Africa in a second stage.

The first operational service is a low water alert system on the Ubangi River, a trans-boundary river shared by the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to be developed with navigation services. It will facilitate the interior navigation by providing relevant information to boatmen to enable proper loading of boats to pass the navigation steps on this inter-States corridor.

The second operational service is a water balance information system on the trans-boundary Ubangi sub-basin to be developed with hydrological services: rainfall and evapotranspiration maps will be disseminated to water managers and planners as well as climate change specialists. The tools and methodologies developed for this region will be disseminated to other African regions before mid 2013.

Based on the AMESD added value products, the latter would also help governments to formulate appropriate policies that can be able to properly manage their environmental resources.

Congo Basin is the second largest river basin of the world after Amazon's one, shared by 10 countries in Central Africa. Its surface is approximatively 3, 700 000 km³, its mean discharge 40 000 m³/s, the length of its waterways 20 000 km long.

Five countries are sharing more than 92 % of the basin: the Republic of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Congo Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (63%) and the Republic of Angola.

The International Commission of the Congo-Oubangui-Sangha basin established by the Heads of State of the Republic of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, has its headquarters in Kinshasa in DRC. The Commission mission aims at improving interior navigation and integrated water resources management (IWRM) of the whole Congo basin.

A workshop launching the AMESD programme in Central Africa was held in Kinshasa on February, 25-26 2008 and circular missions in the CEMAC States and DRC enabled the identification of relevant services to be developed, the networking of partners and beneficiaries of the programme and the assessment of data, equipment and capacity building needs.

(Kinshasa, DRC, 30 April 2010) The African Union Commission has awarded a grant of Euro 1,295,789 to CICOS in the framework of the African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) programme – a pan-African programme working towards effective access by 47 African ACP countries to environmental information through satellite receiving stations being under deployment.

Exchange of originals between CICOS Secretary General and Head of EU delegation to DRC. From left to right: Head of the European Union Delegation in DRC, Mr. Richard Zink, H.E. Mr. Jean Bruno ITOUA, Minister of Energy from the Congo Republic and also President of the CICOS Ministerial Council and Col. Benjamin NDALA, CICOS Secretary General.