5th Water Expert Group: Water Directors Meeting

Luxembourg,  23-24 November 2015

Water fosters human security, supports economic growth and provides for environmental needs. The southern shores of the Mediterranean are among the world’s most water-scarce areas, with more than 150 million people facing water stress. According to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), this figure is set to rise by a further 80-100 million by 2025.

The effects of climate change, including more extreme phenomena like droughts and floods, are likely to exacerbate the situation, both in the south and north of the Mediterranean.

The Fifth Meeting of the Water Expert Group (WEG) of the Union for the Mediterranean is scheduled to take place in Luxembourg on 23 and 24 November 2015. The meeting will aim at relaunching a regular regional dialogue on water issues of common interest, building on the  Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Water held at the Dead Sea, Jordan, held in December 2008 as well as on the latest WEG that took place in Barcelona in 2011. The meeting is also expected to expand and integrate in the debate emerging issues like the water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus as well as pressing challenges like climate change.

The draft agenda includes information and dialogue sessions on: water resources challenges and responding management efforts in the region; show cases on Integrated Water Resource Management application at national, local and transboundary levels; insights on the Water-Food-Energy-Environment Nexus, adaptation-mitigation co-benefits through Nexus approaches, and IWRM/ICZM integration; water financing, investment and economics; and deepening on selected tools and methodologies towards integrated approaches.

Wide representation from southern, eastern and EU MS is confirmed, together with experts from relevant regional water organizations.

The meeting is organised by the UfM Co-Presidencies together with the UfM Secretariat, Division of Environment and Water.

The meeting is co-sponsored by the EU funded Sustainable Water Integrated Management-Support Mechanism (SWIM-SM) Programme and the GWP Water, Climate and Development Programme (GWP WACDEP).