UN committee meets in Beirut on regional water issues
The Energy, Natural Resources and Environment Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) initiated a four-day meeting of experts on "Updating the Assessment of Water Resources in the ESCWA Member Countries" in Beirut on Tuesday. The meeting aims at improving the assessment, development and utilization of regional water resources.
The meeting, opened by Lebanese Minister of Oil, Water Resources and Electricity and Hazem El-Beblawi, is reviewing "the progress of individual states and the region as a whole in improving water-resource knowledge, including shared sources, water availability, potential and demand, status of implementation of supply and demand management measures, and institutional and legislative evolution in the ESCWA region," a press release said.
It added that the meeting's participants are also discussing topics that include "water resource assessment and regional integrated water management, recent advances in water-resource-assessment techniques with regard to improvements in the application of existing or newly developed methodologies, isotopes, modelling, remote-sensing techniques, and the use of the Geographic Information System." Legal, economic, social and administrative frameworks are also being discussed.
ESCWA's members include Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Representatives of the United Nations Secretariat bodies, specialized agencies and other organizations including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations University, the Gulf Cooperation Council, King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) also participated, as well as a number of universities, research centers and non- governmental organizations' representatives and resource persons.