Regional Project: Regional Cooperation for sustainable Water Resources Management - Maghreb
Country / Region: Africa / Supraregional
Focal Point: Groundwater
Begin of project: January 1, 2014
End of project: August 31, 2022
Status of project: July 29, 2022
Irrigation water is derived in the Maghreb region mostly over open channels
Source: Dierk Schlütter
Water scarcity in the Maghreb
Water is particularly in the Maghreb region a scarce resource that is increasingly coming under stress through the ever rising water needs of a growing population, sustained urbanization, tourism, industry and irrigated agriculture. Most aquifers are overexploited and threatened in part by salinization and pollution through the infiltration of pollutants from agriculture, from effluents and solid wastes. The productivity of water use, however, is too low. Both in agriculture and in the drinking water supply, considerable water losses occur. Measures for the protection of water resources are insufficient and in spite of massive investments like in Tunisia, partly inefficient. Monitoring of groundwater abstraction needs to be optimized.
It is expected that climate change will increase the long-term stress on the resource significantly. Due to increasingly frequent crises in the water and agricultural sector, the awareness of the importance of water conservation raises and political reforms have begun in the countries of the region. These reforms are, however weak, as the institutional capacity for demand management and sustainable management of water resources are insufficient and existing knowledge and experiences are exchanged insufficiently.
The Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS)
The Leading implementing agency is the OSS (Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel), a regional organization based in Tunis. All 25 countries bordering the Sahara are members. Germany supports OSS since its formation in 1999, together with France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Canada. The OSS sees itself as an initiator and facilitator of partnerships to deal with regional issues, the management of transboundary water resources, and the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements for combating desertification, biodiversity and climate change. The OSS is funded through voluntary contributions from member countries as well as subsidies and donations from partner organizations.
The Project
The BGR project "Regional cooperation for sustainable water resources management - Maghreb" aims to enable specialized institutions in three of the OSS partner countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) to gain better access to recent data and improved methods for sustainable groundwater management. BGR supports both the technical and the management staff in the partner institutions to close the existing knowledge gaps in the field of groundwater knowledge, analyzing and evaluating the existing and new knowledge in order to lay the foundations for sustainable strategic decisions and improved water management.
The BGR project works closely with the eponymous GIZ project, which will establish a structured knowledge and experience exchange between the partner institutions in these three countries, professionally supported and moderated by the OSS. BGR facilitates OSS to incorporate collected data and recorded information regarding groundwater management in both the OSS Information Management System, as well as in the information and experience exchange controlled by the OSS.
These mechanisms are the foundations for a professionally - sound influence on the policy towards a more sustainable groundwater management in the region.
The project activities include:
- Compilation, analysis and evaluation of existing hydro geological information in the countries / region
- Assessment of agricultural irrigation extension areas and groundwater extraction by means of remote sensing methods
- Recording, analysis and evaluation of existing groundwater monitoring networks and recommendation of priority rehabilitation measures
- Practice oriented Capacity Development
Project contributions:
Literature:
- Factsheet: Regional Cooperation for the Sustainable Management of Water Resources in the Maghreb -Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia
- Factsheet: Coopération régionale pour une gestion durable des ressources en eau au Maghreb - Algérie, Maroc, Tunisie
Partner:
Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), based in Tunis (Republic of Tunisia)