The Near East Region is an area that is extremely aware of the significance of water in daily life, and the need to ensure adequate clean water for all citizens, as well as to provide for irrigated agriculture.
The countries of the region are all facing the prospect of their water resources becoming insufficient for the demands currently being placed on them, and so have to either find new supplies, or to reduce demand. As several countries are already mining their groundwater, such that it will run out in a generation, the position is acute. Aware of the need to assist the countries of the Region in developing policies for the water sector - policies that must attempt to use the limited supplies in the most sustainable manner for the benefit of all - FAO has focused attention on the problem through various means, including this Consultation.
The Second Expert Consultation repeated the format of the first Expert Consultation, held in Beirut, Lebanon, in December 1996. A number of respected practitioners and academics active in the water policy sector were invited to prepare country papers covering the current water supply and demand situation, the legal and socio-political framework controlling water supply and use, the policies guiding activities in the sector, and areas where action was needed. Having identified the key factors, they were then asked to propose suitable actions - with an emphasis on the underlying policy framework - to address the situation. To promote comparability among the country papers, all the resource persons were requested to develop their contribution following the methodology proposed in the FAO/UNDP/World Bank publication, Water sector policy review and strategy formulation. A general framework, published by FAO in 1995 as FAO Land and Water Bulletin, No. 3.
Country papers were prepared for Cyprus, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the Sultanate of Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen, and RNE prepared an overview based in great part upon those papers. The keynote paper considered national water policy reform in the context of regional cooperation. An overview was also presented on AOAD’s strategies in the area. The eleven papers are appendixed to this report.
The discussions highlighted the similarities of countries of the Region, but also demonstrated the diversity of water policies. As an outcome of the group’s deliberations, a number of recommendations were put forward, and the meeting closed with a proposal for a Water Policy Decade initiative in the region.
