“Raed” participated through its membership in the coalition that manages and implements the Sustainable and Integrated Water Management (SWIM) programme, which is a regional program funded by the European Commission with a total budget of 22 million euros. This program aims to contribute to the effective implementation and widespread dissemination of sustainable water management policies and related practices. Relevance in the southern Mediterranean region. This comes in the context of the increasing scarcity of water and the increasing pressures placed on water resources as a result of a large group of users and desertification processes, as well as the factors affecting them from climate change.

The program consists of two components that work together as a mutually reinforcing unit to support the most urgent reforms and the most innovative approaches to water management in the Mediterranean region, with the aim of their widespread dissemination and replication. These two components on which integrated and sustainable water management are based are as follows:

The support mechanism is funded by a budget of €6.7 million.
Five demonstration projects funded with a budget of approximately €15 million.

The support mechanism for the integrated and sustainable water management program is implemented by a consortium of nine international and regional companies and national institutions, including the Arab Network for Environment and Development (Raed).

Raed, as a primary partner in the Integrated and Sustainable Water Management Program Alliance, has agreed with a number of experts from some Arab and Mediterranean countries to facilitate and activate the program’s work in a number of fields.

Overall goal

Widespread dissemination of integrated and sustainable water management policies and practices across the Mediterranean region.

Brief description of the project

In the context of increasing water scarcity, and the continuing pressure on water resources on a large scale from users, in addition to the problem of desertification that is exacerbated by climate change, the project to support sustainable and integrated water management implemented its activities through a support mechanism for the Mediterranean countries, which consisted of four axes and six packages. a job. The themes are (local governance, no-regret measures to adapt to the phenomenon of climate change, economic evaluation of water resources, and non-conventional water resources). The work packages are (water governance and dissemination – capacity building – implementing water management plans – promoting lessons learned and good practices – developing a communication strategy – and supporting pilot projects). Through the project, the southern Mediterranean countries engaged to restructure the water sector by integrating the governmental and non-governmental sectors as well as financiers.

“Raed” – as one of the coalition partners for the project – for its part coordinated among its members in the Arab Mediterranean countries in order to enhance the implementation of the project’s activities in their respective countries, as well as their participation in the various activities of the project. It also worked to provide non-core experts for the project. Raed also hosted the project management headquarters, and was responsible for translating and reviewing all media materials in the Arabic language. It contributed to disseminating the project’s developments, its technical and monthly bulletins, and its technical reports to all its members, whether by e-mail or through the Environment Forum’s monthly newsletter.

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Implementation site

Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine.

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Partners

Engineers and Planners LDK, Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean GWP-MED, Arab Water Utilities Association ACWUA, Royal Haskoning DHV, Greek Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water, Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, Austrian Environment Agency

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Donor

European Commission

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Duration of the project

The project began in 2010 and was completed in 2015

Project results

The project was implemented with activities that covered the axes of priority topics, with variations in the depth of the work line. These axes are (enhancing the dissemination of non-traditional water resources management, financing water projects, economic assessment of water quality deterioration, contributing to planning adaptation to climate change, and assisting in water governance).

In this context, the project worked to support the integration of sustainable water management approaches into regional and national development policies, and also helped to study selected aspects of water resources management in more depth, and this included lessons learned from the application of the European Union Water Directive Framework. The project also contributed to implementing awareness-raising and capacity-building activities among decision makers, mid-level managers and relevant stakeholders. It also contributed to identifying and disseminating good practices, and helped those in charge of the program’s pilot projects to implement more sustainable models of water consumption and to adopt solutions that meet current and future challenges.