Experts discuss water projects to be implemented through the UfM

Sixty experts, officially representing 22 countries, together with the European Commission and League of Arab States and representatives of 23 international, inter- and non-governmental organizations, came together in a two-day meeting to discuss the way forward in the field of water, especially with regards to the identification and development of joint Mediterranean water projects.

A press release said that during the 4th meeting of the Water Expert Group (WEG) experts exchanged views on identifying and implementing future regional or sub-regional projects, in addition to finding means of technical collaboration among the members of the Union for the Mediterranean. The Deputy Secretary General for Water and Environment Dr. Rafiq Husseini, who chaired the meeting, made a presentation where he explained the role of the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean, the Water Division 2011 work programme, and the project guidelines for processing a UfM project.

In addition, participants were briefed on EU funded regional projects in the field of water and Horizon 2020. Also elaborated at the meeting were potential scenarios for technical collaboration among the 43 country members. At the end of the meeting, the participants agreed to draft a work plan for the WEG for the rest of 2011 and 2012 in accordance with the Jordan Ministerial Declaration on Water (December 2008), and follow up on the other tasks defined by the Declaration.

One of the major outcomes was that the country members will follow the recently approved UfM project guidelines when submitting their respective country projects in the field of water. They have also decided to pursue organizing sub-regional WEG meetings to assist countries in developing projects proposals.

In addition, they agreed to share and exchange best practices in water resource management and maintain close coordination through the Secretariat in order to ensure harmonization and complementarity of their efforts.

The Water Expert Group (WEG) was formed to implement the declarations of the Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Water, held at the Dead Sea, Jordan on 22 December 2008.