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"id": 1034937,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1034937/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
"speaker": {
"id": 376,
"legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
"slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I want to thank the Committee for bringing this Report on the Convention and International Hydrographic Organisation. The only thing I would have wanted to find out from the Committee is: they have made reference to us seeking accession, when I actually thought they should be bringing it for ratification. Perhaps, because of time, they may not be able to respond to that. That is one of the technical things that Hon. Kioni may not understand. Perhaps, the Chair might also be perplexed because it is legal. I just want to say that one of the things that has been mentioned by the Chair is that this Convention seeks to promote the use of hydrography for the safety of navigation and all other marine purposes and to raise global awareness on the importance of hydrography. It also seeks to improve global coverage, availability and quality of hydrographic data, information, products and services and to facilitate access to such data, information, products and services. It also seeks to establish and enhance development of international standards for hydrographic data, information, products services and techniques and to achieve the greatest possible uniformity in the use of these standards. Other than setting the standards, it also provides for nautical charts. This is what I think the Seconder of the Report was talking about. One of the reasons why I am interested in this is, if you actually look at the Convention, even though it talks about marine, it also makes references to lakes. For us the people of Suba North, that is of great interest especially because there are certain policy decisions that the Government makes in relation to the nautical charts. One of them is, at some point, the Government would close the lake for a period of four months and people could not fish because the Government would say that there is a depletion of resources, especially fisheries. Over time, I negotiated with the Ministry to ensure that with technology now, we can do exit and entry of fishing vessel, which in simple terms is fish caging. With that, you do not need to stop. I just want to thank the Government because that has since been done. However, it has brought the other challenge that we know that this kind of survey helps with. There is already competition about the paths that people follow even when you have caging and people need to fish. It is creating a lot of challenge between those who are doing traditional capturing of fisheries and those who are doing caged fishing. So, for us to join this organisation, it will enhance our capabilities as a nation, where we do not have technical expertise. What I would like to encourage and I am hoping that the relevant Ministry will look into this, if you look at the Convention, it makes reference to the International Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, the law of the sea and the convention we are talking about focus a lot on the oceans and the archipelagic waters and very little on internal waters. I am hoping that even this body that has been established will then focus on internal waters, especially now that the country has focused on the blue economy and there is a lot of resources that we have under the blue economy. If we do our surveys properly and well, and if we do our nautical charts very well, there is a lot that is yet to be discovered, perhaps even the cure for COVID-19 and other ailments that we do not already know about. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you gave me just one minute since the time is almost up, I can say just one thing to the Committee. If you look at the Treaty Making and Ratification The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}