EMWIS Flash n°120 - November/December 2014

7- AquaForMed, the Mediterranean Network of Water Training Centres set up as one of the Commitments made at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseilles, is continuing its development. Several requests for membership have been received and work is progressing on the survey related to demonstrating economic benefits of vocational training in the water sector. Any case study from the water and wastewater sector would be welcome. Progress will be presented at the 7th World Water Forum in Korea, April 2015, where AquaForMed will be participating to the Thematic Process_Topic 4.5 - Enhancing Education and Capacity Builiding, in order to promote training of water professionals as a strategic issue for development of the water sector and durability of infrastructures. For information please contact info@aquaformed.org or check AquaForMed website.

8- This workshop "Water Management and Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment in the Arab Region" aimed at identifying the prevailing challenges at national and regional levels in water quality data acquisition and sharing. This aspect also includes monitoring, assessment and reporting taking into account the 2011 Arab Water Strategy. Among many objectives, this workshop helped raise awareness and reinforce collaboration & networking among relevant stakeholders regionally and globally and later created synergies and opportunities of networking for joint future action. R-KNOW project participated at this workshop and it was a good opportunity to present its network and activities, including papers on issues such as: Sustainable and Innovative Technologies, Climate Change & Water, Water governance and the Water, Energy, water and Food Nexus. Further information on EMWIS website

9- The third Workshop of the PAWA Project "Pilot Arno Water Accounts" was organised in Rome on 1 December 2014. This project is funded by the European Commission / DG Environment for a pilot action on the Arno river basin for the calculation of the water balance according to the international System for Economical Environmental Accounting for water (UN SEEA-Water) with a monthly time range and at sub-river basin level. The first results obtained within the project PAWA were presented to all the National, Regional and Interregional Basin Authority of Italy. The workshop was opened by Bernardo DE BERNARDINIS, the President of ISPRA (the Italian Agency for Environmental Protection and Research), who stressed the importance of this pilot initiative and its willingness to implement this approach in other Italian river districts. Other Italian Basin Authorities also presented their activities related to the preparation of water balance and in conclusion a round table allowed to share the lessons learnt from the various initiatives that have been developed at European, national and local level. Now, the PAWA team is focusing in using the water accounts simulations for the optimal selection of measures to fight against water scarcity. These measures are foreseen to be integrated in the nex version of the river basin management plan. The PAWA project is funding by the Directorate General Environment of the European Commission (DG ENV), with the aim of promoting preventive actions on European basins against desertification through a sustainable management of water resources. The Coordinating entity is the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), and the main partners are: the Arno River Basin Agency (ARBA), Italy and the Euro-Mediterranean Information System on know-how in the Water sector (EMWIS/SEMIDE), France Further information on EMWIS website.

12- With over 150 attendees, the joint WssTP-ERRIN H2020 Brokerage & WG event concluded at the last week of November in Brussels. The first day of the event was dedicated to Horizon 2020 (the new Research and Innovation programme of the European Commission), having as an aim to facilitate networking between members for collaborative projects, as well as to foster the creation of consortia for the upcoming Horizon 2020 calls and other EU funding opportunities. Panos Balabanis from the DG RTD of the European Commission, Anna Casagrande from the National Contact Points and Eric Vos from Water Campus Leeuwarden participated in the first sesssion , giving their own perspective on the lessons and experiences learnt from the 2014 calls. On 27th of November, Pascal Dauthuille, chair of the WssTP iTAB (Innovation & Technology Advisory Board) opened the 2nd day of the event, highlighting the importance of WssTP working groups for the functioning and implementation of WssTP strategy. Further information on EMWIS website

13- How to achieve a better compliance with water laws in the South Mediterranean countries was at the focus of a 2 days policy dialogue in Athens, Greece on 14th and 15th of October 2014. Organized in the framework of the EU-funded Sustainable Water Integrated Management – Support Mechanism (SWIM-SM), the activity brought together 31 experts and NGOs from 7 South Mediterranean countries, who reviewed the current enforcement issues and gaps their countries experience, deliberated possible policy options, identified measures to improve conformity including capacity needs, and suggested guidelines for countries of the region towards better application of rule of law in the water sector. Participants praised the meeting for its structure and high level presentations, its dynamic discussions and very vibrant participation. Facilitation and interventions by the experts were commended and lessons learnt were deemed useful. On the other hand, SWIM-SM published a report and a set of guidelines intended to assist legislators and government officials from the South Mediterranean countries in the design and administration of a regulatory environment for the safe "managed aquifer recharge (MAR)" with adequately treated wastewater (or reclaimed water). SWIM-Sm is also helping in assessing the cost of water resources degradation & remediation in Mann River and Lake Mar as well as assessing Lebanese decision makers in prioritizing investments to reduce the degradation of the Litani River Basin. Further information on EMWIS website

14- National representatives in charge of Environmental Policy from more than 20 Mediterranean countries joined participants from international financial institutions, regional organizations and other key stakeholders in adopting a strategic document outlining the key objectives over the next 5 years for the H2020 Initiative for a cleaner Mediterranean as regards investments in pollution reduction, review and monitoring, capacity building and research. Hosted by the Co-presidency of the Union for the Mediterranean — the European Union and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan — and with support from the UfM Secretariat, the meeting was organized last December 17th in Barcelona in direct follow-up to the recommendations outlined in the Ministerial Declaration on Environment and Climate Change held in Athens on 13 May 2014 to draft and adopt a work programme for the H2020 Initiative’s second phase (2015-2020). With a clear indication from the Ministers to step up efforts, the unanimously-adopted document recognizes the need to reinforce investment activities in pollution reduction, with a wider thematic scope, information sharing and closer cooperation and synergies. The document adopted was the result of collaborative work between the UfM Co-Presidency, the UfM Secretariat, UNEP/MAP, the European Environment Agency and the European Investment Bank (EIB). While training activities were particularly well received by participants, country representatives stressed the critical importance of responding to concrete needs on the ground and ensuring linkages with other programmes and projects in the same areas. Increased coordination and information sharing within the pollution reduction sub-group (led by EIB and UfM) with a particular focus on project preparation will help to yield tangible results in this regard. Further information on EMWIS website

15- The first consultation workshop of the Water Policy Dialogue in Palestine, within the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled project “Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector” was held in close cooperation with the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), on 13 November 2014, in Ramallah. With more than 40 key stakeholders from the government, private companies and banks, research institutes and academia, media and the Civil Society, the workshop marked the official launch of the Policy Dialogue to be conducted by the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med,) within the period 2014-2015. The Policy Dialogue will allow building a common understanding and a shared consensus on the main obstacles to private sector involvement in Palestine’s water sector and identify concrete actions to overcome them. The launch of the Palestinian Water Policy Dialogue came soon after the Project’s 1st Regional Conference that was organised on 28-30 October 2014, in Athens, Greece, in close collaboration with the EU funded “Sustainable Water Integrated Management-Support Mechanism” (SWIM-SM) Project. The next Regional Conference within the “Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector” Project is scheduled to take place during the latter part of 2015 with the aim to reinforce further the regional dialogue and exchange of experiences by sharing the findings of subsequent national Policy Dialogues, including the one in Palestine. Further information on EMWIS website

16- Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal inaugurated, last November 9th in Oran (432-km west of Algiers), the Al Mactaa sea water desalination mega-station in the East of Oran’s administrative center. Following the explanations given by the officials of the sector, the Prime Minister insisted on the quality of the water that will be served to the citizens. This installation, which is considered as one of the biggest in the world using the reverse osmosis process, has a daily production capacity of 500.000 m3 of water, a quantity aimed at meeting not only the needs of the province of Oran but also those of the bordering provinces such as Mascara, Tiaret, Mostaganem and Relizane. The HOMA (Hyflux Operating Maintenance Algeria) company was created for the management of the station. The company concluded a contract with TMM and should manage the Al Mactaa station for 25 years. Further information on EMWIS website

17- Before its visit to Holland, Egyptian Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Hossam Moghazy attended a meeting of the Egyptian-Dutch Advisory Council for Water. Moghazy led Egypt's delegation during the meetings which took place on Thursday 11/12/2014. The meetings tackled a number of important issues about future cooperation between the two countries in the field of water resources. In pre-departure statements, Moghazy stressed the necessity of making use of the Dutch expertise in development plans and renewable energy. Further information on EMWIS website

18- The European Innovation Partnership on Water - EIP Water in short - has taken a central role on the European water innovation landscape, providing a platform for all actors in the field of water and innovation. After the success of the first EIP Water conference in November 2013 in Brussels, the second EIP Water annual Conference took place on 5 November in Barcelona, the European Innovation Capital 2014. The EIP Water conference attracted well over 400 participants from all over Europe and beyond. The presentations are now available on the EIP Water slideshare account. The Summary of a "Market study on water innovation opportunities in four African countries" - Angola, Mozambique, Algeria, and Morocco - was presented by Professor Nunes Correia of the Portuguese Water Partnership. The conference also marked the launch of the 3rd Call for Expressions of Commitment to establish an EIP Water Action Group; please do not hesitate to check out the call and its details at EIP Water website. Further information on EMWIS website

19- According to the United Nations World Health Organization, over half of the world’s population now lives in cities and this figure will continue to grow, especially in less developed regions. Therefore, delivering safe water and sanitation in cities will be key to securing sustainability for human, economic and environmental prosperity in the future. On Tuesday, 28 October, six organizations joined forces to tackle this issue in Marseilles (France). Through the signature of a Partnership Agreement, UN-Habitat’s Global Water Operators’ Partnership Alliance, ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, United Cities and Local Governments, the Daegu Gyeongbuk Development Institute, the National Committee for the 7th World Water Forum and the World Water Council committed to work together to address the important role that local and regional authorities and operators play in managing and providing water and sanitation for their populations while safeguarding water resources and to support cities in rising to this challenge. This Partnership Agreement will serve as an important stepping stone for the preparation and organization of the Local and Regional Authorities Conference of the 7th World Water Forum, which will take place 12-17 April 2015 in Daegu-Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea and towards the Habitat III conference on housing and sustainable urban development in 2016. The partnership with these key players will allow for greater mobilization of local and regional authorities and water operators and will help make their voices heard in the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Further information on EMWIS website

20- The Economist's 2014 World Water Summit, where the world's leading thinkers on water policy, management, irrigation, technology, economic development, sanitation and hygiene and water-related risks gathered in London to catalyze action in response to the looming global water crisis. Driven by the event theme – Time for Action – speakers from the private sector, government, academia, and associations provided the rationale and recommendations for pushing progress to a new level, stimulating private sector involvement and smart partnerships, and raising the profile of and activity supporting water stewardship across all sectors of society. John Parker, who writes on global trends in the environment for The Economist, moderated the summit. The event kicked off with a video message by Prince Charles, who reminded attendees about the importance of sustainable water management, accepting responsibility for and properly managing water, and measuring what matters. He stressed that the sector should move toward "enlightened water diplomacy" and "fair pricing regimes." In a special appeal to the private sector, deputy secretary-general Eliasson requested that firms actively engage with the United Nations Global Compact to "advance corporate water stewardship and better sanitation practices" and contribute to efficient water use, water treatment and desalination. Further information on EMWIS website

21- The Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) released on December 9th, 2014 the recommendations of its seventh annual conference held in Amman, which addressed food security in Arab countries. The recommendations were finalized by a high-level committee of experts and officials who participated in the conference. AFED secretary general Najib Saab announced the recommendations, which call for filling the gap in food production, amounting to US$36 billion annually, by enhancing land productivity, irrigation efficiency and regional cooperation. While recognizing the importance of political stability and security in this regard, the recommendations pointed out to the role of food security in creating jobs and supporting political and social stability.  Further information on EMWIS website

22- A new network focused on achieving food, water and energy security was launched at UNESCO Headquarters by the International Hydrological Programme (UNESCO-IHP) and the Australian National University (ANU)-UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance. The Food, Energy, Environment and Water (FE²W) Network is ‘bridging the silos’ across the fields of food, energy, environment and water, which are essential to human wellbeing and to environmental health, to improve living conditions worldwide. FE²W is a network of individuals from academia, the private and public sectors, and civil society, who wish to facilitate the dialogue between disciplines and sectors.  The FE²W Network will serve to compile main messages to decision-makers. FE²W actions aim at improving how to manage systemic risks and shocks across these systems.  Further information on EMWIS website

23- In Morocco, agriculture is a strategic sector, economically and socially. It plays major roles in terms of food security and nutrition, supply for agro-industry, employment, integration into the international markets, stabilization of populations in rural areas, and sustainable development. The Green Moroccan Plan (GMP), launched in 2008, is the governmental strategy which aims to stimulate the agricultural sector. It intends to reform agriculture and promote its integration in the international market, and heighten sustainable growth. The implementation of the GMP is based on two pillars and several cross cutting programs. The first pillar concerns the highly productive, intensive and market connected agriculture, and the second pillar concerns the strengthening of small holder farmers by promoting intensification of crops where appropriate, and the reconversion to more adapted crops with respect to ecological conditions and markets demand. The cross-cutting programs deal with water economy, land tenure, farmers organization, market access, free trade agreements in which Morocco is involved, and investment mobilization. In total, the GMP is made of 1500 projects requiring more than 10 billion USD for implementation until 2020. The National Irrigation Water Saving Program (PNEEI) is considered to be one of the main programs of the GMP, since still 77 percent of irrigated areas are surface irrigated (MAPM, 2012). The PNEEI aims at saving water irrigation through the conversion of surface irrigation to drip irrigation on nearly 550,000 ha towards 2020, with an investment of 4.5 billion USD. Further information on EMWIS website.

24- Following a call for proposal opened to all EU countries, a consortium led by France (IOWater) with Spain as junior partner has been selected to implement the twinning project “Governance and integrated management of water in Morocco”. This project is launched within the framework of the programme “Achieving the Advanced Status” promoting the strengthening and the partnership between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco, with respect to the implementation of the Morocco-EU Neighbourhood Action Plan (2013-2017). The overall objective of the twinning project is to support the improvement of river basin management in Morocco. The specific objective is to strengthen the institutional, organisational and technical capacity of the Department of Water of the Ministry for Energy, Mines, Water and the Environment in the field of integrated river basin management. Further information on EMWIS website.

25- The world’s population is expected to reach over 8 billion within the next 15 years. According to United Nations estimates, we will need 30% more water, 45% more energy and 50% more food by 2030. Mankind must thus start considering the interdependencies of these three sectors, a relationship known as the water-energy-food nexus. Water is needed for almost all forms of energy production and power generation; energy is required to treat and transport water, and both water and energy are needed to produce food. One key to face our growing demands is the climate-related variable soil moisture. Soil moisture influences agricultural processes as well as global water and energy cycles. Copernicus satellites provide a cost-efficient source of information to support the monitoring of water-energy-food nexus issues. Satellites deliver global soil moisture data at high temporal resolution. They also provide coherent, reliable and unbiased information about soil moisture conditions in regions where such data is otherwise inaccessible or unavailable. Satellite-based soil moisture data support the monitoring of droughts and floods. Such information is essential for optimising water supply, energy generation and food production to achieve sustainable development. Further information on EMWIS website

26- The Uganda WASH sector has been using a set of 11 ‘Golden Indicators’ to measure its performance for more than 10 years. While the information provided by the Golden indicators is useful for national-level planning and identifying general problems around rural water supply, it is not detailed enough to guide district-level planning or to enable District Water Offices to take corrective action. As a supplement to the Golden Indicators, the Service Delivery Indicators (SDIs) developed under the Triple-S initiative enable the user to make a more in-depth analyses of the factors that underlie performance in rural water services delivery at minimum cost and with minimum technical support. This policy brief describes the SDIs, how they can be applied, and expected benefits, based on pilot testing in Lira and Kabarole districts. Further information on EMWIS website

27- ESA's SMOS satellite has clocked up more than one billion kilometers orbiting Earth to improve our understanding of our planet’s water cycle. Marking its fifth birthday, all the data collected over land and ocean have been drawn together to show how moisture in the soil and salinity in the ocean change over the year. Carrying a novel sensor, it captures images of ‘brightness temperature’. These images correspond to microwave radiation emitted from Earth’s surface and can be related to soil moisture and ocean salinity, which are two key variables in Earth’s water cycle. The data that has been collected by the satellite has been used to show, among other things, how the moisture in the soil changes with the seasons around the world and in different geographical locations. This data has also been used to show monthly differences in sea-surface salinity with respect to the average salinity.  On the other hand, the novel satellite measurements are also helping regions lacking the appropriate technology in forecasting and monitoring events such as drougths and crop yields. Further information on EMWIS website

28- In a world where global average warming reaches 4°C above pre-industrial level, summer temperatures are expected to be up to 8°C warmer in parts of Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq by the end of the century. Climate change will place already scarce water resources under intense pressure in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region,with major consequences for human life and regional food security. In countries—such as Jordan, Egypt and Libya—crop yields could drop by up to 30 percent by 2050 if temperatures rise by 1.5 to 2°C. All capital cities in the region could face many more exceptionally hot days each year. Compared to the rest of the world, the MENA region will disproportionally suffer from heat extremes. Dramatic changes are affecting people around the world already, damaging crops and coastlines, and putting water security at risk, according to a new World Bank report, Turn Down the Heat: Confronting the New Climate Normal. However, the worst changes could be avoided by holding warming below 2°C, the report says. Climate-related pressure on natural resources and subsequent migration might increase the risk of conflict. Rising sea-levels—another projected effect of global warming as polar ice caps melt—could cause billions of US dollars-worth of damage to cities like Alexandria, Benghazi and Algiers, and to Egypt’s Nile river basin. Declines in agricultural productivity will have strong repercussions for economic growth and social stability. The World Bank Group believes that economic development and climate protection can be complementary. Technological and behavioral changes are urgently needed to mitigate the harmful effects of global warming and reverse present trends. Further information on EMWIS website