{"id":99985,"date":"2020-06-26T14:15:21","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T13:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/\/?p=99985"},"modified":"2020-07-08T11:21:17","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T10:21:17","slug":"spains-commitment-mediterranean-ufm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/spains-commitment-mediterranean-ufm\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain unveils EUR 1 Million financing to the construction of a Desalination Facility for the Gaza Strip"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s2\"><b>The Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation, \u00c1ngeles Moreno Bau, and the Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), Nasser Kamel, met today to discuss the progress of the Desalination Facility for the Gaza Strip project, with the Palestinian Minister of Water, Mazen Ghunaim, in a virtual meeting.<\/b><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s2\"><b>During the meeting, Spain unveils 1 Million euros of financing for the construction of a Desalination Facility for the Gaza Strip<\/b><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><span class=\"s2\"><b>The desalination plant will supply drinking water to 2 million Palestinian inhabitants, thereby ensuring a sustainable solution for the chronic and longstanding water shortage and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where over 95% of the water is not drinkable due to the over-pumping of a polluted Coastal Aquifer.<\/b><\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>UfM Secretary General welcomes Spain\u2019s commitment to the Mediterranean region and to the UfM Secretariat.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\"><b>Barcelona, \u200b\u200b25<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s2\"><b>\u00a0June 2020<\/b>. As part of a \u201cvirtual trip\u201d to Palestine held this week, the Secretary of State for International Cooperation of Spain, \u00c1ngeles Moreno Bau, met online with the UfM Secretary General, Nasser Kamel, and the Palestinian Minister of Water, Mazen Ghoneim. They discussed Spain\u2019s support to the construction of a desalination plant project to supply water to 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. During the call, Spain announced a financial contribution of EUR 1 million to this vital project. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\"><b>UfM Secretary General Kamel highlighted that<\/b>: \u201c<i>This flagship project was the first one to be endorsed by the Union for the Mediterranean. Spain\u2019s support takes us a step closer to make it a reality on the ground, improve the living conditions in the Gaza Strip and remove obstacles to economic development and job creation while contributing at the same time to the regeneration and sustainability of the coastal aquifer<\/i>.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">This landmark operation will be the largest infrastructure project ever built in the Gaza Strip. It consists of three integrated projects: the construction of a 55 million-m3 desalination Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) plant, a North-South conveyance system and a Non-Revenue Water reduction project, as well as an associated solar power energy plant. The project is now ready for implementation since all significant milestones in all the preparatory stages have been completed, including on governance, completion of the required feasibility studies, as well as solutions for the energy supply and the financial mechanism for donor contributions. With the support of Spain and the rest of international donors, the contract to start the construction works will be awarded this year. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\"><b>Palestine Minister of Water, Mazen Ghunaim declared that: <\/b>\u201c<i>The Palestinian government is determined to implement this vital Desalination Facility in Gaza, following the outstanding support of the UfM and the Spanish government, in order to provide people with hopes and basic needs. The provision of safe water for all is essential to protect human health<\/i>.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">The availability of fresh water in the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated places in the planet, is among the lowest in the world. Currently, 2 million Palestinians in Gaza rely almost exclusively on the coastal aquifer as the only source of freshwater in the region, which is inadequate to meet demand from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective. Only 3% of the water pumped from the aquifer and consumed by an ever-increasing population complies with the World Health Organization drinking water quality standards.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s4\">In addition to the project\u2019s endowment, and coinciding with the 25<\/span><span class=\"s5\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s4\"> anniversary of the Barcelona Process, Spain announced a contribution of 500,000 euros to the Union for the Mediterranean.<i> \u201cThe UfM welcomes this financial support that speaks of Spain\u2019s strong commitment to the Mediterranean region and it\u2019s ambition to drive positive agendas in key \u200eareas of cooperation, in view of promoting human and sustainable development\u201d<\/i> declared the UfM Secretary General.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s6\"><b>More information<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/\/ar\/conference-desalination-plant-gaza\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Donor Conference kicks-off implementation of desalination plant project to supply water to 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"li5\"><span class=\"s7\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/\/ar\/project\/the-desalination-facility-for-the-gaza-strip-project\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s8\">Information on the desalination plant project in Gaza<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li5\"><span class=\"s7\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/\/ar\/spanish-minister-foreign-affairs-receives-secretary-general-ufm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s8\">AECID and UfM sign a collaboration agreement<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li5\"><span class=\"s7\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/\/ar\/25bcnprocess\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"s8\">25<\/span><span class=\"s9\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s8\"> anniversary of the Barcelona Process<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation, \u00c1ngeles Moreno Bau, and the Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), Nasser Kamel, met today to discuss the progress of the Desalination Facility for the Gaza Strip project, with the Palestinian Minister of Water, Mazen Ghunaim, in a virtual meeting. During the meeting, Spain<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/spains-commitment-mediterranean-ufm\/\" class=\"more\">\u0625\u0642\u0631\u0623 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0632\u064a\u062f<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":99982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,62],"tags":[],"priority-area":[12781,202],"class_list":["post-99985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-55","category-62","priority-area-activity-of-the-secretary-general-ar","priority-area-water-environment-ar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99985"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101043,"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99985\/revisions\/101043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99985"},{"taxonomy":"priority-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ufmsecretariat.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/priority-area?post=99985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}