Issues Home About Contact Us Issue 12 - June 2015 عربى
Regional Developments

The 3rd Arab Water Forum, 2014

No fewer than 12 Arab countries suffer from severe water shortages in a region that sustains 5% of the world`s population, but has access to only 1% of the world`s total water resources. United Nations Environment Program(UNEP) findings project that the per capita availability of renewable water resources is less than 500 m3 per year. UNEP estimates that water resources in West Asia are likely to drop to 20% over the next fifty years, due to multiple factors, such as climate change.

Agriculture accounts for 85% of total fresh water consumption in the Middle East/North Africa; while agriculture’s important share in the region’s total gross domestic product (GDP) is over 8%. However, the rise in water consumption and depletion of freshwater resources are largely due to:

  • High standards of living
  • Increasing urbanization and industrialization
  • High population growth rate
  • Failure to adopt basic water conservation principles
  • Insufficient energy for seawater desalination
  • Regional conflicts resulting in mass flow of internal migrants
  • Lack of public awareness

To meet these challenges, the Arab region has accomplished two major achievements during the last few years: (1) the establishment of the League of Arab States’ Arab Water Ministerial Council (AWMC) in 2008 and (2) the AWMC’s2011 adoption of the Arab Water Security Strategy (2010–2030). These efforts are designed to help governments face the challenges of Arab water security and future demand of sustainable development with projects that support efficient management and use of water resources.

On 911 December,Cairo hosted the 3rd Arab Water Forumunder the auspices of the League of Arab States and the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation of Egypt. Attending were a host of water and agriculture ministers, as well as experts from various regional and international organizations.The annual three-day forum wasconvened this year under the rubric Together toward a Secure Arab Water Future.In his opening speech, HRH Khālid bin Sultān bin `Abdul-`Aziz ĀlSa`ūd clarified the theme by noting the need for Arab countries to have a minimum degree of political unity or economic agreement and social consensus to ensure the minimum of Arab water security for political and social stability.

HIC-HLRN participated in two sessions, both organized and funded by the Arab Water Council (AWC) and Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The first session reviewed the engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs) and the media in climate-change adaptation in the water sector in MENA region, while the second discussed how to make“water ethics” relevant to the looming challenges of water management.

The first session started with a panel discussion on how governments can improve their outreach to civil society and media on climate-change issues in the MENA region, and vice versa.  The panel included three NGOs representatives from (Lebanon-Jordan-Morocco) and one governmental representative from the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency.

Although the NGO representatives were specialized in water issues, their presentationsgenerally addressed water scarcity and the lack of resources to improve the water-sector services to all communities. They did not focus on the activities of the CSOs addressing climate change, nor governments duties to address the issues.The Egyptian official emphasized the lack of qualification and experience of CSOs to collaborate with the government on meeting the challenge of climate change.

In the second part of that one, GIZ and AWC presented an initial regional roadmap to strengthen the role of CSOs in climate-change adaptation, in particular:

  • Improving the dialogue and exchange between CSOs and governments regionally and nationally;

  • Enhancing the role of CSOs in implementation the Arab Water Security Strategy.

The second sessioninvolving HIC-HLRN reviewed the principles of water ethicsas they relate to water management. David Groenfeldt (Water-Culture Institute, USA) and Amb. Magdy Hefny(Egypt) presented a general overview of the water ethics as a set of nonbindingmoral principles. HIC-HLRN Legal Researcher Ahmed Mansour participated in the subsequent panel of CSOs, responding to three main questions about:

  • How the underlying ethics about water play a role in creating, as well as resolving conflict?

  • At what administrative or hydrological level would a water-ethics charter most practical?

  • Would a universal Water Ethics Charter, or a local statement of ethical principles to address particular local issues be more useful?

Mansour assess these principles through the human rights-based approach to water, and focused on the normative content of the human right to water and sanitation provided in General Comment No.15. From the practical aspect, he proposed to operationalize existing norms under international law for both policy formulation and as a means of conflict and disputeresolution,providingremedies for victims of deprivation and violations. He cautioned against equating the roles of the state, private sector and individuals in sustainable use and management of water. He pointed to the state as bearing the primary obligation to mitigate constituent interests to ensure water’s availability, accessibility, affordability and quality as a common good, prioritizing the most needy and vulnerable within its jurisdiction. He highlighted also the corresponding extraterritorial obligations of states to respect, protect and, where appropriate, fulfill the human right to water through international assistance and cooperation beyond the state’s borders.

In the final session,Mansour raised the question about how these legal principles will be upheld in the context of a Water Ethics Charter and to what extent the private sector will be obliged to do so. David Groenfeldt replied that the proposed Charter that his institute envisages would support “good practices” of privatization,and that the private sector should assume a role in water governance.


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