WASH News MENA
News feed maintained by information specialists from IRC and partners.
Saudi Arabia: Ice Age aquifers – searching for water under the sands
26 May 10
Water is scarce in arid Saudi Arabia. Now the king has hired a team of German scientists to search for groundwater trapped in aquifers beneath the massive kingdom’s sands. Their pioneering work could provide solutions for other desert countries. [...] Finding Fossil Groundwater German geologist Randolf Rausch, 59, as been working for GTZ International Services, [...]
Egypt: Irrigation Innovations in the Nile Delta
19 May 10
Egypt depends almost exclusively on the Nile River for its water supply. Of this, 85 percent is used for irrigation. As with the rest of the world, the country’s water demands are ever growing. For Egypt, the solution lies in making better use of the Nile’s existing flows. To do so, the most viable solution [...]
HM The King Enquires about Oujda Liquid Sanitation Program
12 May 10
HM King Mohammed VI asks about the progress of the Oujda liquid sanitation priority program, with a cost of 550 million dirhams (about $ 63 million), and inaugurated a rainwater drainage system to protect the southern sector of the city against floods. This ambitious program provides for equipping with sanitation facilities outlying and under-equipped neighborhoods [...]
Auja Farmers struggle to get their water rights
10 May 10
The Auja Spring in the Jordan Valley used to be one of the largest springs in Palestine, providing water to the Auja community and its thousands of sheep, and irrigating 130,000 dunams of land. Currently, the construction of a series of deep Israeli wells in the Auja Valley has led to the almost total drying [...]
Morocco, Tunisia Seal Several Cooperation Agreements
10 May 10
Morocco and Tunisia signed, several cooperation agreements at the closing ceremony of the 16th Moroccan-Tunisian joint committee. The 12 agreements covered the sectors of drinking water, renewable energies, environment, building and public works, as well as the parliamentary and religious fields. Morocco’s Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi and his Tunisian peer Mohammed Ghannouchi, who co-chaired [...]
Saudi Natl Water launched water and wastewater projects
20 Apr 10
Saudi Arabia’s state-owned National Water Co. or NWC, launched water and wastewater projects during the last two years at a cost of 10 billion Saudi riyals ($2.67 billion), Jeddah-based Okaz daily reports Saturday, citing an official.Turkish, Korean, and United Arab Emirates companies, as well as local contractors are engaged in projects in this sector across [...]
Mediterranean water conference ends in failure
16 Apr 10
Talks aimed at adopting a water management strategy for the Mediterranean failed due to a row between Israel and Arab countries over a reference to the Palestinian territories, participants said.“Unfortunately we can not reach an agreement,” French secretary of state for European affairs Pierre Lellouche said at the end of the 4th Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference [...]
Israel is threatening to shut down water supply to the Palestinians
16 Apr 10
A short but worrying news article in the Jerusalem Post prompts me to post something on the groundwater contamination situation in the Occupied Westbank. The JP stated that “National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau said Wednesday that Israel should consider ceasing water flow to the Palestinians if they do not stop contaminating the water with sewage”.In [...]
Yemen: World Bank-administered project helps expand access to water supply
14 Apr 10
The World Bank, acting as administrator for the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), has approved a grant for US$5 million for a scheme to expand access to water supply for poor households living in peri-urban areas of Yemen that are not currently served by the water network.Around 210,000 people are expected to benefit from [...]
Saudi Arabia: 18% of desalinated water in the world
14 Apr 10
Saudi Arabia produces 18% of desalinated water in the world. Prince Dr. Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed Al Saud, Vice President of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Saudi Arabia, disclosed this at the scientific programme of a Conference of Water Desalination in Arab Countries in Riyadh on 12 [...]
