Director-General of UNESCO signed agreement establishing first UNESCO category 2 centre on freshwater in the US

On Thursday 29 October 2009, the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, signed with Major General Don T. Riley, Deputy Commanding General of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), an agreement establishing the UNESCO International Centre for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM) in Alexandria, Virginia.

Also present at the signing ceremony was Dr Robert Pietrowsky, Director of the USACE Institute of Water Resources, which will host the centre, and Dr Eugene Z. Stakhiv, Technical Director of UNESCO-ICIWaRM.

"Today, we establish the first category 2 centre in the US. It is a very important moment. For UNESCO to expand its freshwater programme we need the involvement of the US science community - we need its expertise, its creativity, its entrepreneurship," the Director-General said on signing the agreement. He went on to explain that ICIWaRM would join a powerful global network of over 40 category 2 centres operating under the aegis of UNESCO, around half of which are in the field of freshwater. "Promoting more sustainable freshwater management has been a top priority of my tenure at UNESCO. The creation of this new centre will significantly bolster our implementing capacity in this area", Mr Matsuura underlined, stating that the new centre would notably increase support to developing countries, especially in Africa.