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Strengthening Water Multilateral Cooperation Policies in Arab and African Regions
On October 8, 2023, Dr. Nuria Sanz, Director of UNESCO Regional Office in Cairo and the Hydrology team visited the Regional UNESCO Category II Center for Training Water Studies (RCTWS). The visit aimed to discuss ongoing and future cooperation between Cairo Office and the Center in building regional water sector capacities in Africa and the Arab Region and in implementing the Strategic Operational Plan of the Ninth phase of UNESCO鈥檚 Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP-IX) in Egypt and regionally.
The exchanges included discussions on joining efforts at COP 28, AWARE cooperation platform launched by the Minister of Water and Irrigation of Egypt at COP 27, African training priorities on water management and water security, as well as on remote sensing services to the pan African community.
During the visit, and following a working meeting, Dr. Sanz addressed a group of trainees attending a regional training on conflict resolution organized by RCTWS through funding from the Government of Italy.
The Regional Centre for Training and Water Studies in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions (RCTWS) is the primary learning and development entity within Egypt鈥檚 Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI). At the National Level, the centre supports Egypt鈥檚 water resources strategy and plans. At the regional level, RCTWS mission is to build capacities within the water sector for effective and efficient water management in the MWRI, and various regional and international stakeholders to enable water sector locally and regionally to be dynamic and adaptive. RCTWS training and capacity building activities address topics relevant to water management system development, climate change and its impacts on water resources and other relevant sectors, water resource development, water efficiency, combatting pollution, and rehabilitation of water supply systems. In both the Arab Region and Africa, RCTWS supports enhancing managerial competences, advanced engineering competences, and technical competences, at vocational and professional levels in the water sector
UNESCO Cairo office and RCTWS have a long history of cooperation. Cairo Office coordinated the recently approved renewal evaluation of the centre in 2021. More recently, UNESCO Cairo Office and RCTWS co-organized a 7 days virtual training course on 鈥淢anaged Aquifer Recharge (MAR) in the Arab Region from 19-28 October 2021. Senior members of the faculty of Cairo University prepared and delivered the training material. 42 water professionals from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, and Qatar befitted from the course.
During the meeting UNESCO Cairo team briefed on the results of the last regional expert meeting on sustainable groundwater Management in the Arab Region, recently organized by UNESCO Cairo Office in Cairo.
Link to News of The Regional Expert Sustainable Groundwater Meeting:
