Working towards a Mediterranean knowledge platform on water
Following a specific request from Ministers during the Water Conference of the Union for the Mediterranean held in Jordan in late 2008, the Secretariat is currently supporting the development of a regional project in order to improve water knowledge at the basis of governance processes not only on national territories but also on shared water resources and more generally in the Mediterranean region as a whole.
Along with the project promoters, l’Institut Méditerranéen de l’Eau (IME) et l’Office International de l’eau (OIEau), a meeting will be held on 10 March at the UfM Secretariat in Barcelona in order to discuss and finalise the modalities of the project, aiming to a Mediterranean Water Knowledge Platform as a prerequisite to the development of sustainable policies for integrated water resources management (IWRM) and climate change adaptation.
The project directly contributes to facilitating the involvement of all water actors concerned in producing and sharing information about water within six pilot countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Monaco, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia), in order to improve the dialogue and planning process between them and make information available to all stakeholders. In addition, data infrastructure provided by the project is likely to generate the creation of added-valued services and thus contribute to sustainable growth in the Mediterranean countries and promote investment in the region.
The meeting will bring together professionals from the Mediterranean Water sector, representatives from the pilot countries as well as international donors and financial institutions.