In September, the Coca Cola Foundation approved funding for the GWP Mediterranean project on ‘Rainwater Harvesting in the Cyclades Islands’. The project aims to contribute to local water security through a pilot installation of more than 10 rainwater harvesting systems in public buildings, training of technicians, and educational activities for local schools.
The 4th Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Water failed to adopt a comprehensive and urgently needed Strategy for Water in the Mediterranean because of a failure to compromise on the wording of two key political issues: the reference or not to ‘occupied territories’ and the reference or not to the UN Convention on the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses.
With the technical and administrative support of GWP Mediterranean in the framework of MED-EUWI, the Water Expert Group of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) put the draft Strategy for Water in the Mediterranean before the UfM Ministerial Conference on Water in April 2010.
A workshop on financing and water discussed the opportunities and priorities for North Africa, and the wider Mediterranean region, for water resources management and service provision.
Experiences and recommendations from an Expert Consultation Workshop on Finance and Water in North Africa and the Wider Mediterranean Region held in February 2010, in Madrid, were fed into the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Strategy for Water in the Mediterranean (SWM) process.
The review of the Lebanese National 2000–2009 Water Plan is being done through a ground-breaking multi-stakeholder consultation. Dialogues are leading to cooperation among Lebanese stakeholders in developing a National Integrated Water Resources Management Plan for the next ten years.