Water Strategy in the Western Mediterranean 5+5, Workshop 4: Action Plan

Following the approval of the Water Strategy in the Western Mediterranean that took place in Algiers last March 31^st, the work in elaborating the Action Plan has continued. In this sense, A work meeting (Workshop 4) will take place in Madrid (Spain) on the 10^th of September 2015. The purpose of this meeting is to present the information compiled so far in regards to the Action Plan and to move forward towards finalising it.

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BACKGROUND

The Western Mediterranean Forum, commonly referred to as 5+5 Dialogue, was launched in 1990 as an informal sub-regional forum of countries geographically situated on the western rim of the Euro-Mediterranean littoral and comprising of Algeria, France, Italy, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Malta and Tunisia. 

Spain and Algeria considered that the adoption of a water strategy for the Western Mediterranean basin was a necessary step to promote a common policy that could help prevent conflict, foster development and contribute to the respect of the human right to water and sanitation by meeting water demands in water scarce environments in a sustainable manner. To this end, they joined forces to launch a joint initiative in the 5+ 5 Forum context.

Thorough 3 workshops held in Oran and Valencia to elaborate the Strategy, the main interest issues common to the 10 countries and regional entities were broken down, synthesised and prioritised. These reflect, firstly, the characterisation and current problematic of this area in relation to water and, secondly the main joint priorities presented by the different national delegations.

Finally, the Water Strategy for the Western Mediterranean was adopted in Algiers, on the 31^st March 2015, by the Ministers in charge of Water in the framework of the western Mediterranean 5+5 Dialogue and invited experts to develop an Action Plan to implement the priorities and the objectives of the Strategy

THE WATER STRATEGY

The Water Strategy for the Western Mediterranean (WSWM) is a guiding document with orientations and objectives on water resources management and protection agreed by the Western Mediterranean countries, supported and enriched through inputs from stakeholder groups.

The long-term WSWM’s objectives are to preserve water quality and to balance quantity of used and available water to achieve regional sustainable economic growth, social prosperity, access to water for all and environmental protection and rehabilitation. The WSWM aims at stimulating the development of policy, cooperation and technological tools, promoting the exchange of knowledge and contributing to share prosperity.

The WSWM is structured around 13 priority issues, grouped in three thematic blocks: it starts on the cross-cutting subjects and widely accepted basic orientations on water management, followed by regional interest issues adapted to the specific context of the Western Mediterranean, and the lastly focuses on more technical objectives, according to the specificities proposed by the 10 countries in order to improve water management.

TOWARDS AN ACTION PLAN

In order to address specific water challenges and help achieve solutions to problems of regional concern with a focus on sustainability, an Action Plan will be developed and followed-up.

The Action Plan will assist in the successful implementation of the WSWM and will be annexed to the Strategy and will compile the proposals from the 5+5 Members. It will detail projects and initiatives with specific objectives, geographical scope, financing plans, foreseen indicators and schedule, and it will allow to visualise the most pragmatic part of the Strategy.

Following the same procedure developed for the adoption of the Strategy, the gestation of the action plan will be led by Spanish-Algerian initiative, which will build on MENBO as technical facilitator of the process.

During the drafting process of the Strategy a first call for project proposals to shape the action plan took place. Mainly, the regional organisations’ proposals are related to water governance, capacity building and knowledge exchange. On the other hand, the first initiatives of the countries appear to be directed mostly towards infrastructure investment projects.