VICTORIA, Seychelles — The Minister for Transport, Antony Derjacques, officially handed over soft copies of updated hydrographic maps to various departments and entities during a brief ceremony at the ministry’s headquarters, Botanical House, yesterday morning. The handover is an important step towards enhancing Seychelles’ maritime safety and development.
Through bilateral cooperation with countries such as India and the United Kingdom in the field of hydrography, the ministry has received updated hydrographic data for different parts of Seychelles’ waters. Minister Derjacques highlighted the importance of information-sharing for climate-change adaptation efforts, noting that the new data supersedes the result from previous surveys done in different parts of the country’s waters.
A Seychelles National Hydrographic Committee has been established, and is gearing up to coordinate the country’s hydrographic activities and ensure that all maritime users have access to the most up-to-date information. The committee is expected to liaise with regional and international partners to build local capacity, and to support the development of a comprehensive maritime database that can be used for navigation, environmental protection, and marine spatial planning.
