TUNIS - The 5th international forum of partners was held, on Monday in Gammarth, on the theme "Water Governance in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: Sharing Benefits, Costs and Responsibilities."
Launched in 2005, this water governance project in the MENA region is aimed to strengthen regional co-operation in water resources matters and lay down the foundations of a participative strategy likely to help achieve food and water security.
It also seeks to set up a network of the region's partners in the water sector to raise awareness of all social segments about problems related to this issue.
The forum provides an opportunity for all partners of this project --Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Yemen-- to exchange expertise and strengthen co- operation in matters of water governance in the region.
It will certainly help participants identify solutions to capitalise on the sharing of benefits, costs and responsibilities between countries of the MENA region.
Opening the forum, Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries Minister Abdessalem Mansour called on the region's countries to work out a guidebook on water governance and devise a strategy to guarantee water self-sufficiency.
He said that in Tunisia, a country that has a water deficit, the quantity of consumed water is estimated at 480 annual cubic metres/inhabitant, compared with an international average of 500 cubic metres.
Water resources in Tunisia depend on weather hazards, including the succession of periods of drought, silting up basins of dams and over-exploitation of underground water.
The agriculture ministry has set up a strategy by 2016 aimed to mobilise nearly 95% of water resources and adopt a new approach in matters of water management.
Mr. Abdessalem Mansour reminded of the objectives set by the presidential programme "Together We Meet challenges," aimed particularly to draw up prospective studies by 2050 and mobilise, by 2016, 95% of water resources. The five-day forum is held by the ministry of agriculture, water resources and fisheries, in association with the German Technical Co-operation Agency, GTZ, and the Arab Water Council.
© Agence Tunis Afrique Presse 2010
