News and Activities

At a time of increasing water demand and the prospect of climate change, the problem of water scarcity in the Mediterranean region and in particular the Greek islands deepens and becomes more critical. Hence, there is an urgent need to enhance water efficiency and to explore further alternatives to ensure water availability using innovative approaches. The revival of traditional water harvesting and management techniques, which have been overlooked in favour of modern technologies, sometimes less sustainable, appears to be one of the most promising alternatives for supplying freshwater in the face of increasing water scarcity and escalating demand.

A school competition, “The Gift of Rain”, is organised in the framework of the Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) programme in the Greek islands , part of the environmental progamme “Mission Water” of Coca-Cola HBC & Coca-Cola Hellas. All Primary and Secondary Schools of the Cycladic islands and of the four project islands of the Dodecanese (Kastelorizo, Symi, Chalki, Rhodes), where educational activities were implemented, are invited to participate in the school competition “The Gift of Rain” from the 1st of January 2014 to the 10th of March 2014.

About 120 representatives of competent institutions, authorities, regional and national NGOs, academia, representatives of the private sector from the Drin Riparians as well as international organizations and donor countries participated in the 2nd Drin Basin Multi-Stakeholders Conference (Tirana, Albania, 10 -11 December 2013).

International Roundtable on Water and Energy Nexus in transboundary basins in SEE, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 6-8 November 2013

On 23 October 2013, the joint GWP-Med/OECD Project Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector launched the national policy dialogue in Jordan during a consultation workshop held in Amman.

With the aim to identify important gaps and obstacles on the governance and financing of the Tunisian water sector, the first national multi-stakeholder policy workshop took place in Tunis on 1st of October 2013. The work forms part of the Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector Project that was officially launched in May 2013 (28-29 May, Barcelona) and is jointly implemented by OECD and GWP-Med.

The Inception Meeting of the Preparation Phase of the GEF Project “Enabling Transboundary Cooperation and Integrated Water Resources Management in the Extended Drin River Basin” was organized on the 27th and 28th May 2013 in Tirana, Albania, back to back with the First Meeting of the Parties to Drin Memorandum of Understanding .

The first Meeting of the Parties to the Memorandum of Understanding for the Management of the Extended Transboundary Drin Basin (Drin MoU - Tirana, 25 November 2011) was held on 28 May 2013 in Tirana, Albania.

 

The Meeting of the Parties reviewed the progress in the implementation of the Drin MoU and endorsed the Action Plan for its implementation. The Action Plan guides the related work undertaken by the Parties with the facilitation of the Drin Core Group and its Secretariat.

 

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Call for offers - Study for the evaluation of the vulnerability of water resources in Tunisia in view of climate change

A high–level conference launching the Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector project was organised by GWP-Med, in Barcelona, 28-29 May 2013, in close cooperation and under the auspices of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Secretariat.