The three member countries of the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL), Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda, Wednesday pledged to ensure the safe extraction of Lake Kivu methane gas.

Emmanuel Kamanzi, the managing director of Energy Development Cooperation Ltd (EDC), a company running the Lake Kivu monitoring and management project for Rwanda’s energy development arm, Rwanda Energy Group (REG), said the resource in the lake is a "goldmine” and they want to jointly exploit and protect it.

A memorandum of understanding was signed that will allow for what was termed as "efficient review of the Management Prescriptions for development of Lake Kivu resources.”

"The objective of having frequent Management Prescriptions is to make sure that the extraction of the methane gas will be safe and sustainable. We want to ensure the safety of Lake Kivu and the surrounding population through the preservation of the lake’s stability,” said Kamanzi.

There is consensus that investors need binding rules and regulations in methane gas extraction, in order to ensure the effective protection and management of the resource as well as the surrounding environment.

CEPGL’s executive secretary, Herman Tuyaga, reminded those present that the increase of methane gas concentrations in the lake could present a regional security challenge for people and their property in the villages and towns nearby.

"Unexploited, this gas poses a danger that could result in a human catastrophe,” Tuyaga said.

The preoccupation of the CEPGL, he said, was to establish a guideline regarding the envisaged exploitation of the gas.

The revised Management Prescriptions will be used by investors, as well as national power regulators, in both Rwanda and DR Congo.

"At the moment, we are using them as a basis for any contractual document for investors and developers in methane gas,” Jean Bosco Mugiraneza, the head of REG, said.

"However, the Management Prescriptions are yet to be recognised in law. But enforcement of Management Prescriptions has been harmonised on both sides of the lake because inadequate extraction of methane gas by one of the operators will affect the whole lake and, in a worse scenario, the whole region.”

For Mugiraneza, to become legally enforceable, Rwanda and DR Congo need to individually recognize the MPs through new legislation.

The Governments of Rwanda and DR Congo first started the process of reviewing the management prescriptions for development of Lake Kivu resources in 2011.

Experts from both countries validated the terms of reference for the review in a meeting held in Bujumbura, Burundi, in February 2014.

The Dutch government is injecting Euros 600,000 through the Lake Kivu Monitoring Programme in Rwanda, to ensure the fast tracking of the Management Prescriptions review.

The EU will support the endeavor with a similar donation to CEPGL.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw