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FRom one conTinenT To anoTHeR
The News N° 24 - March 2014
THE MEDITERRANEAN
Establishment of Shared
Water Information Systems
in the Mediterranean
Following the request from the Ministerial
Water Conference for the Mediterranean,
which took place in late 2008 in Jordan, to
have comparable data, statistics and indica-
tors,
EMWIS
and the Mediterranean Coun-
tries have worked together to define an ambi-
tious project for
strengthening the Natio-
nal Water Information Systems in the
Mediterranean.
Through dialogue with the Secretariat of the
Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), the Medi-
terranean Action Plan, the European Envi-
ronment Agency and the Arab League,
the
project was finalized and presented for
approval to the 43 UfM member coun-
tries.
This project includes:
n
A regional component,
to provide
guides, tools, capacity building, exchange
of experiences and demonstration of data
flows for international reporting activities,
including the Strategy for Sustainable De-
velopment in the Mediterranean, control
of pollution in the Mediterranean (Med-
pol), and the Water Strategy of Arab
Countries. This component is open to all
countries of the Union for the Mediterra-
nean. It is based on European standards
(SEIS, WISE, INSPIRE) and UN standards
(environmental and economic accounting
of water).
n
A national component,
which repre-
sents nearly 85 % of the budget for buil-
ding
National Water Information Sys-
tems (NWIS)
in the first four pilot coun-
tries (Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan and Leba-
non).
The interest generated by the project led the
partners to launch the first actions before
labeling by the UfM: thus, the preliminary
stages of defining NWISs started in Morocco
and Jordan, and a first implementation is
underway in Tunisia.
At the regional level,
an analysis of the
indicators needed for integrated water
resources management was carried out in
partnership with the Blue Plan and with sup-
port from ”ONEMA”. The knowledge genera-
ted by this project allows many applications
to be considered. One of them is preparing
a
White Paper on Water in the Mediterra-
nean,
initiated by the Mediterranean Water
Institute and jointly presented to UfM for
labeling, as part of the process of establishing
a Mediterranean Knowledge Hub on Water.
A Network to improve water
resources management
In order to better share experiences in Inte-
grated Water Resources Management in the
Southern Mediterranean countries and sup-
port local stakeholders in its implementation,
the International Union for Conserva-
tion of Nature (IUCN), associated with
EMWIS, CEDARE and national NGOs in
Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine,
launched the "Regional Knowledge Net-
work on Water" (RKNoW) project with
funding from the European Commission
under the EU Neighborhood Policy.
Four themes have been selected for structu-
ring work in thematic sub-networks for the 3
years of the project: governance, energy-
food-water nexus, sustainable technologies,
water and climate change.
Strategic platform
for sustainable waste
management
in the Mediterranean
All stakeholders in waste management in the
Mediterranean are facing a growth of the
volume to be treated, the evolution of regula-
tory standards to comply with, or national
and international targets to be achieved. In
many countries of the Mediterranean region,
there is often no pre-sorting at the landfill, the
solutions for waste treatment are little known
and the Authorities lack the means to imple-
ment them.
The MED-3R project, to develop inte-
grated urban waste management
systems, which are effective and adap-
ted to local contexts, fits in with this
prospect.
This project funded by
the European Com-
mission
under the European Neighborhood
and Partnership Financial Instrument in the
Mediterranean is coordinated by
the Nice-
Riviera Metropolis.
With a budget of
€
5 million, it gathers fifteen partners, mainly
including cities of five Mediterranean coun-
tries: France, Italy, Tunisia, Lebanon and Jor-
dan.
IOWater
and
EMWIS
contribute to this pro-
ject on the "capitalization and training on
urban solid waste management" component,
and for the coordination of the 13 pilot
actions carried out in the eight partner cities.
The launching of the project was organized in
Nice in June 2013.
A Euromed Permanent General Secretariat
has been established in Nice.
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EMWIS
Better management of knowledge on water in the Mediterranean area
SEMIDE
E MW I S
UfM seminar in Barcelona
September 2013
Kick-off Committee
Nice - 13 June 2013
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