Toward Supranational Mechanisms in Addressing the Challenges of Water Scarcity in WANA

WANA Forum initiative will be holding a consultation aimed at devising policy recommendations pertaining to transboundary water management in Amman (Jordan), from 22 to 24 February 2011 (It was scheduled to be held in Médenine, Tunisia from the 7^th to the 10^th of February 2011, but because of the situation in Tunisia it was postponed and place changed to Amman). 

Water Security was a central theme of WANA Forum 2010, where regional experts warned that the wars of the 21st century will be fought over water. Climate change will only exacerbate problems in a region already stressed by lack of water, food and political and social unrest. Across the Arc of Crisis, from Somalia, Sudan and Egypt in Africa to Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in West Asia, water scarcity in the region has already lead to drought and famine, loss of livelihood, the spread of water-borne diseases, forced migrations and open conflict. Water scarcity is closely linked to food and health security, making better water management a key stepping stone for poverty reduction and economic growth. HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal’s concept of a Community of Water and Energy for the Human Environment takes an integrated approach to water, hunger, climate, health and poverty, with a view to averting future conflict with concentric circles of cooperation.

Challenges and Opportunities

Some of the challenges and opportunities in water management include political and legal framework, finance, technology and institutional development.

1.Effective policy and legal frameworks are necessary to develop, carry out and enforce rules and regulations that govern water use. Policy and legal frameworks are needed to link local, national and regional networks and facilitate cooperative, integrated policy-making.

2. Financing the considerable costs involved in harnessing and managing water require the third sphere partnership to develop solutions that promote socially and environmentally acceptable trade-offs.

3. Technological innovation in the region can be a driver for change in overcoming social, financial and environmental hurdles, creating successful, sustainable solutions and empowering local communities in the process.

4. Institutions across sectors, such as agriculture, industry and energy can collaborate in dealing with current and future challenges through such reforms as decentralisation, stakeholder participation and transparency, capacity building, partnerships and coordination (public-private, public-public, public-civil society) and new administrative systems.

Proposal

Practical solutions will need to cultivate a broad range of expert knowledge to include better water management, improved technologies to increase the efficiency of water use, and new investments undertaken jointly by the Third Sphere of government, private sector and civil society partnership. The WANA Forum Working Group has initiated work in developing a policy brief that takes an integrated approach to the social, environmental and economic dimensions of water scarcity.   A consultation in February (exact date and venue is pending confirmation) will bring together scientific, government and business leaders from WANA countries to evaluate the policy brief for further development and launch at the third annual meeting of the WANA Forum 8-10 May 2010 in Amman.