3rd regional workshop on Water demand management (WDM) in the Mediterranean, 19- 21 March 2007, Saragossa, Spain

The 3rd regional workshop o­n “Water demand management (WDM) in the Mediterranean organised under the aegis of the Mediterranean Commission o­n Sustainable Development will take place in Saragossa (Spain), 19, 20 & 21 March 2007.  Medwet is collaborating with the UNEP Blue Plan to organise the working group o­n water needs of ecosystems, o­ne of the five thematic groups contributing towards the workshop.

Between 50 and 100 participants are likely to attend (professional and local experts – companies, local authorities, farmers, protected area managers, NGOs -, technical institute and university experts, experts from specialized Mediterranean networks in the fields of water, agriculture, urban settlements, industry, the environment, experts from financing and co-operation agencies).

The workshop which is a continuation of those organised in Frejus (1997) and Fiuggi (2002) will be based o­n the presentation of national reports carried out in the voluntary countries, regional studies & papers. The local & national studies will aim to document concrete examples of good practices and to measure the progress actually made over the last years in terms of WDM in the main sectors of use (agricultural water, drinking water, industrial water), factoring natural water needs for the ecosystems into policies and factoraing WDM into water and cooperation policies.

Aims of the workshop

The workshop aims:

to take stock of progress with implementing the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development, adopted by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention for the protection of the Mediterranean sea against pollution;

to take more detailed stock of progress o­n Water Demand Management (WDM): indicators and comparative water use performances (transport, distribution and use efficiency), identifying actual examples of good practices, analysis of policy instruments implemented and obstacles encountered;

to enable a regional sharing of experiences;

to propose ways to speed up the mainstreaming of WDM across water, environmental and development policies (especially agricultural policies) and regional and bilateral co-operation, develop and implement efficiency plans, and improve the system for monitoring/evaluating progress o­n water and sustainable development in the Mediterranean.

The outcome of the workshop will serve as input towards the Water Tirbune – Innovation for sustainable Development to take place in the EXPO, 14 June – 14 September,  Zaragoza Spain. A policy overview report based o­n the workshop outcomes will be produced in 2007.

Follow this link to view the provisional program of the workshop

Updated on 2/28/2007 4:28:31 PM.