EMWIS Flash n°159- November- December 2021

2- UfM member states have jointly developed the UfM Water Agenda as a regional policy response to the high priority of water issues in the Mediterranean. In 2017 the UfM Ministerial Meeting on Water mandated the development of a regional Water Agenda and a companion Financial Strategy. The UfM Water Agenda is structured around four pillars: ensuring universal access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); increasing the climate-resilience of Mediterranean economies; supporting balanced development across the water-energy-food-environment nexus; and contributing to address social concerns, with a focus on employment and migration. The UfM Financial Strategy for Water lays out a menu of options to increase the financial sustainability of the Mediterranean water sector – including making the best use of existing financial resources, and mobilising additional financial resources. Each member state is responsible for adapting and implementing the regional agenda at the national level. Conclusions of EU-UfM water investment policy forum 25 October 2021. Further information on EMWIS website

3- Even more daunting survival-related challenges than presently obtain are likely to lie ahead for countries that are now battling with food security if the alarming picture of a continual loss of scarce resources, painted in a recently released Report by the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) persists. The Report, made public in December, highlights what it says is the continual deterioration of the earth’s soil, land and water resources and the impact that this will have on feeding a global population that is likely to get close to 10 billion by year 2050. “The pressures on soil, land and water ecosystems are now intense, and many are stressed to a critical point,” FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu wrote in the foreword to the Synthesis Report, titled “The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture – Systems at Breaking Point”. The FAO Director-General said that against this backdrop, “it is clear that our future food security will depend on safeguarding our land, soil and water resources,” in the period ahead. Further information on EMWIS website

4-The Mediterranean Worlds Forum will be held on February 7 and 8, 2022 in Marseille under the high patronage of the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron & Ambassador Karim Amellal, Interministerial Delegate for the Mediterranean. The Forum of Mediterranean Worlds will engage entreprises, universities and research centers, territories and diasporas, with a strong focus on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean. As a place of exchange and solutions, the forum will engage in federating and positive themes, in the wake of the "Marseille Commitments" adopted at the Summit of the two shores in 2019, such as the environment, education, inclusion, culture, employment, economy and innovation. Further information on EMWIS website

5- The New-Med Research Network and the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), in cooperation with the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, organised a high-level international conference in Barcelona. Convened to discuss the multidimensional security implications of the climate emergency on state and societal resilience in the Mediterranean, invited speakers include OSCE Secretary-General, Helga Schmid; UfM Secretary-General, Nasser Kamel, and Deputy Secretary-General, Grammenos Mastrojeni; the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, Igli Hasani; lead authors and scientists from the Network of Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change; former directors of the UN-ESCWA Sustainable Development Policies Division and of Greenpeace MENA; and senior researchers and academics with a proven track record of research on the Mediterranean.The conference fits into a larger work programme of research, outreach and dissemination activities on the OSCE’s 2nd dimension of environmental & economic security carried out by New-Med over the past year. Further information on EMWIS website 

6- Last December, the Next Society project (TNS) and FEMISE released a policy brief on Turning Energy and Water Crisis into opportunities: The creative inventions of Start-ups in South Med countries. This policy brief is coming with short video interview of the author and entrepreneurs. The paper is assessing the status of the water and energy sectors in the South Med region and to highlight the opportunities in terms of entrepreneurship and innovation, through the example of three start-ups from Algeria, Lebanon, and Morocco that benefited from THE NEXT SOCIETY project (funded by the European Commission). Further information on EMWIS website

7- The Water and Environment Support (WES) is a regional project designed to contribute to the implementation of an integrated approach to pollution reduction and prevention, in line with the Union for the Mediterranean agendas and the Barcelona Convention. On December 13, 2021, the EU funded WES Project launched a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) exchange process, focusing on Water Demand Management (WDM) which will be combined with a Regional Training (online) on the same subject in 2022. The proposed scope of the P2P Exchange on WDM and its various approaches/measures in the domestic, touristic, and industrial water demands were discussed with the peers water experts. The P2P exchange will span over almost a year, till 12 November 2022 and will be mostly facilitated by virtual meetings and regular communication among the designated peers from relevant institutions in the PC. Further information on EMWIS website

8- Fiware4Water organises a cycle of monthly on-line workshops from January 2022 to April to present the key results of the project (ending in May 2022) on the uses of digital water solutions. The workshops will cover the technological, socio-political and citizen engagement as well as European policies dimensions. The workshops are structured in a way debates will take place after presentations made by the project’ experts and testimonies from our Demo Cases and Demo Networks. FIWARE is a smart solution platform, funded by the EC (2011-16) as a major flagship PPP, to support SMEs and developers in creating the next generation of internet services, as the main ecosystem for Smart City initiatives for cross-domain data exchange/cooperation and for the NGI initiative. So far little progress has been made on developing specific water-related applications using FIWARE, due to fragmentation of the water sector, restrained by licensed platforms and lagging behind other sectors (e.g. telecommunications) regarding interoperability, standardisation, cross-domain cooperation and data exchange. Fiware4Water intends to link the water sector to FIWARE by demonstrating its capabilities and the potential of its interoperable and standardised interfaces for both water sector end-users (cities, water utilities, water authorities, citizens and consumers), and solution providers (private utilities, SMEs, developers). Further information in Fiware4Water website

9- GIZ, in collaboration with PRIMA, held a 3-day online workshop with the aim of strengthening capacities for WEFE Nexus solutions in the Mediterranean region. This training was a call to researchers in the Mediterranean in the sectors of natural resources, such as water, energy, or agriculture. This workshop provided an opportunity to learn about the WEFE Nexus, and the value in integrating it into project designs and policymaking. Over 300 participants joined for the full training. The 3-day training “The water-energy-food-ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus: from research to practice”, hosted by PRIMA and the Nexus Regional Dialogues programme, co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, kicked off on December 6, 2021 with welcoming words by Octavi Quintana, Director of PRIMA and Maria Ana Rodriguez, Team Leader Nexus GIZ. The day started off with an incredible 457 participants logged into Zoom.“Changing climate conditions are a reality that everyone must deal with the consequences of, but vulnerable regions are taking a large amount of this burden”, emphasized Rodriguez. The importance of this workshop was made clear after she highlighted the challenges that the Mediterranean region faces due to the effects of a changing climate and the inter-connection of water, energy, and food security. Over the period of 3 days, 6 sessions were held by a range of renown Nexus experts who gave unique inputs on researching the WEFE Nexus, and using this research to implement Nexus policies in the region. Further information on EMWIS website 

10- In the framework of EdiCitNet project  “Making Cities Edible” conference will be  held live online over two days, 16th & 17th February 2022, it will bring together leading researchers, policymakers and city administrators, civil society actors, green city activists and entrepreneurs to discuss the potentials, challenges and development of sustainable urban food innovation in cities around the world. With a mixture of keynote addresses and roundtable discussions and an open networking session, the event will explore the latest findings about the power of urban food innovation to tackle social, ecological and economic challenges within cities, including insights from the EdiCitNet Project’s partner cities – as well as explore the social, technical, ethical, ecological, governance and financial challenges around scaling up sustainable solutions and anchoring them in current and future urban planning. Beyond highlighting successes, potentials and next steps for further action, the event also aims to generate guidelines on how to successfully integrate edible NBS in city planning, offering ideas to decision-makers in policy and business and addressing the societal and environmental problems facing our communities and our cities today. Click here to find out more and to register!

11- On November 25th, The Water Researches and Technologies Center (CERTE) organized in the framework of Workpackage 2 task2.3  a training session for agrifood and tannery industries from the Tunisian demosite.  The event took place in Hotel Belvédère Fourati, Tunis, TUNISIA. The training session on "Sustainable Water Resources Management" was an opportunity to focus on the importance of the implementation of innovative governance approaches for coastal water resources and to enhance the capacity of selected local stakeholders in managing sustainably the local water resources, by explaining examples of treated wastewater reuse in the context of circular economy. Further information on Sustain-COAST website

12- The 19th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM) is a forum where researchers and practitioners from all around the world meet every year to share experiences and raise challenges in all the aspects related to the design, development, and use of information systems to improve the management of crisis and disaster situations. The 19th ISCRAM is co-organized by the National School of Engineers of Tarbes and ISCRAM Organisation and it will be held in Tarbes, France on 22-25 May 2022. SAFERS consortium will take part at this event, and the consortium is currently preparing a dedicated session to be co-organised with other EU-funded projects working on earth observation and forest fire management. Further information on the event can be found on SAFERS website. You may also read the recently published newsletter#2 which summarises the main updates of the project.

13- The Horizon 2020 EU-funded research and innovation project ‘HYDROUSA’ aims to provide innovative solutions for islands and water scarce regions in terms of water/wastewater treatment and management through closing the water loops and boosting agricultural and energy profiles. Since its kick-off in July 2018, the project has developed several novel and nature-based solutions which have been demonstrated in the 3 Greek islands: Lesvos, Mykonos, and Tinos. In order to collect feedback about HYDROUSA solutions and to better understand the needs of different stakeholders in terms of water and wastewater management and the related challenges, you may support the consortium by dedicating 10 minutes to respond to this survey [link]. Further information about the project is found on HYDROUSA website.

14- INOVAGRI contributes in a systematic and active way to the development of irrigated agriculture and the rational use of water through the execution of basic or applied research, technological development and innovation, as a way of fighting water scarcity, negative environmental impact and social inequality and poverty. SUPROMED was presented during the INOVAGRI meeting held virtually from 8 to 10 December. UCLM ( project coordinator) presented SUPROMED  during the roundtable  on "irrigation improvement  at different scales".  Further information on SUPROMED website

15- The Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH) hosted, as coordinator, the launching event of a significant European project involving partner organizations from Italy, Egypt, Malta, Tunisia, Palestine and Jordan, and many relevant stakeholders at national level.  “The Mediterranean pathway for innovation capitalisation towards an urban-rural integrated development of non-conventional water resources” - MEDWAYCAP, was presented, thus activities and objectives debated during the Kick-off meeting that took place on 16th and 17th of December 2021 in Thessaloniki. MEDWAYCAP project is fully aligned with European Green Deal and other EU policies on water management, climate change and circular economy and, endorsed by the Union for Mediterranean (UfM), will strongly contribute to the UfM Water Agenda. Thanks to the cooperation between high level institutional and technical bodies at Mediterranean level, the project aims to facilitate the general access and promotion of best practices for continuous improvement of treated wastewater reuse as a non-conventional water resource (NCWR) at domestic and agricultural level. With a budget of 1.11 mil. Euro, funded 90% by the European Programme ENI CBC Med (Cross-Border Cooperation ENI "Mediterranean Sea Basin”), MEDWAYCAP contributes to the wider open debate on local water shortage mitigation and Mediterranean environmental challenges by means of multisectoral and transnational alliances. Further information on EMWIS website

16- A Special Issue on "Water and Circular Cities" was published in the peer-reviewed, open access journal “Water” on 9 November 2021. The papers prepared by the COST Action for this special issue are essential as the framework for addressing urban circularity challenges with nature-based solutions is presented. For the six papers related to the framework, 82 persons from 28 COST countries contributed. You may read all the contributions on the “Water” journal website from here [link]

17- The European Environment Agency cooperates with a large number of countries, including those in the Western Balkans. How does this cooperation further the EU’s work on the environment and how does it benefit Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo? We sat down with Luc Bas, head of Coordination, Networks and Strategy Programme, to discuss how the EEA is working with these countries to improve the environment. Why are Western Balkan countries so important for the EEA? What is the added value of cooperating?
These countries are EU accession or pre-accession countries. In order to become a full EU member, a number of policies need to be put in place and the environmental field is one of the largest policy areas with a substantial package of legislation. Moreover, the Western Balkans are our neighbors and we all know the environment doesn’t stop at the border, so close cooperation on environmental issues is also in the EU’s interest. Lastly, as cooperating countries in the European Environmental Information and Observation Network (Eionet), the Western Balkans have access to a large pool of experts, helping them with the  environmental challenges they face. In return, experts from these countries contribute to the network with their know-how. The full article is available here. Further information on EMWIS website 

18- Sixteen per cent of Malta's groundwater volume is set to be lost in the next 80 years as a result of climate change, a study has found. The study was carried out by scientists from the Universities of Calabria and Malta. In Malta, it was led by Prof. Aaron Micallef. Three-dimensional geological and groundwater models were developed for the Maltese islands. Groundwater supplies almost half of the potable water in Malta, one of the poorest countries globally in terms of water resources, the study points out. Three predicted effects were considered on the impact on groundwater volume and saltwater intrusion simulated for 80 years: Reduction in precipitation; Increase in water demand; and Sea-level rise. Of these, water demand plays the most important role in reducing groundwater volume. Sea-level rise, on the other hand, only plays a marginal role. The study was funded by the European Commission, the University of Malta and the Helmholtz European Partnering Initiative. Further information on EMWIS website 

19- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is improving access to irrigation water for more than 6,800 farmers and their families, with a 49 million euros loan to the Ministry of Agriculture, Hydraulic Resources and Fisheries in Tunisia. The funds will help to restore and rehabilitate the ageing water infrastructure serving 37 oases in the country’s southern governorates of Gabès, Gafsa, Kebili and Tozeur. The oases are the primary source of employment and income in the region, with irrigated agriculture providing jobs to 35 per cent of the working population. In addition, thanks to the support of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the project will include a programme focusing on enhancing economic opportunities for women and young people in the oases. Since the start of its operations in Tunisia in 2012, the EBRD has invested more than 1.3 billion euros across 55 projects in the country, in both the private and public sectors. Further information on EMWIS website

20- While Algeria is facing a drastic decrease in its water resources due to drought, the urgency is now to rationalize the available reserves. In the wilaya of Ain Témouchent, located in northwest Algeria, local authorities are investing in the construction of facilities for the storage of fresh water. According to Sebaâ Ahmed, head of the department of drinking water supply at the Directorate of Water Resources and Water Security of the wilaya of Ain Témouchent, 11 water tanks with a total capacity of 6750 m3 have recently been commissioned in several municipalities, including Boumediene (1000 m3), El-Amria (500 m3), Ain Témouchent (1000 m3). This council and capital of the eponymous wilaya has also benefited from a pumping station. The town of Aoubellil also has a reservoir of 250 m3. It is the same for the beach of Sidi Djelloul which has a storage capacity of 500 m3. Further information on EMWIS website