Just one week to go until the 5th Mediterranean Water Forum opens in Tunis on February 5, 2024. The international meeting, organized by Tunisia’s Société nationale d’exploitation et de distribution des eaux (SONEDE) in collaboration with the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) Secretariat and coordinated by the Institut méditerranéen de l’eau (IME), the forum’s initiator, will last three days, until February 7, 2024. It will bring together state representatives, decision-making bodies, local and regional authorities, parliamentarians, donors, business and professional representatives, regional networks and civil society. In Africa, the other countries involved are Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Libya.
The theme will be “Together for shared water sobriety”. The aim is to “consolidate cooperation and the exchange of know-how and experience in the field of water in the Mediterranean, while addressing the region’s current challenges, notably climate change”, says the IME. Indeed, the Mediterranean region, at the crossroads of three continents – Africa, Asia and Europe – is particularly affected by climate change, with above-average temperature rises.
In its First Assessment Report on the Mediterranean (MAR1) published in November 2020, the Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change (MedECC) reveal that average annual temperatures on land and sea in the Mediterranean basin are 1.5°C higher than in pre-industrial times, and are set to rise by between 0.5 and 6.5°C by 2100, depending on the climate change scenario. The consequences are water stress, desertification, loss of biodiversity, soil degradation and the occurrence of extreme climatic events such as droughts, forest fires, heat waves and floods…
Six themes to be addressed
The other issue that the water experts and leaders expected at the 5th Mediterranean Water Forum are expected to put on the table is that of effective, integrated water resource management (IWRM) solutions. Implementing these solutions (water rationalization, development of unconventional water resources, etc.) will also enable us to respond to emerging problems on a global scale, notably as a factor of employment, prosperity, stability and peace.
Six themes have been selected for the Mediterranean process, namely “WEFE nexus (Water/Energy/Food/Environment)”, “New vision of supply (water mix) and demand by 2050”, “Prevention and management of droughts and floods”, “Regulation, right to water and water law, conflict prevention/resolution”, “New partners in water financing and performance monitoring”, and “Digitization and new solutions dedicated to rational water use”. According to the Institut Méditerranéen de l’Eau, the proposed themes are in line with the priorities of the 10th World Water Forum, to be held from May 18 to 24 in Bali, Indonesia, under the theme “Water for Shared Prosperity”.
The Mediterranean Water Forum has been held every three years since 2011. The 4th edition was held in Malta from December 6 to 8, 2021, an island state located in the center of the Mediterranean, where most groundwater recharge takes place in winter…
For more information on this major Mediterranean water event, click here.
Inès Magoum