A regional training on Decentralized Water Management (DcWM) was organised by the EU-funded SWIM-Horizon 2020 Support Mechanism Project on 24-25 July in Brussels. The training introduced the project’s southern Mediterranean partner countries to the concept and approach of the EU’s Water Framework Directive (WFD) as an instrument to promote water management at the River Basin scale.

Different issues related to Decentralized Water Management (governance, participatory approaches and stakeholders’ engagement, groundwater related issues, large inert-basin water transfers, data management) were addressed and discussed. Also, the main challenges and constraints faced by the partner countries around DcWM were raised and jointly discussed.

More than 35 key stakeholders, including representatives of water and irrigation ministries of the partner countries, government agencies and non-government organisations, along with local authorities, participated in the training.

The training initiated a regional dialogue for the identification of specific priorities, challenges and opportunities around decentralized water management.

The SWIM-H2020 SM project aims to contribute to the sustainable use of scarce water resources and properly manage municipal waste, industrial emissions and waste water, and therefore enhance, directly and indirectly, resilience to climate variability and change in the entire region with emphasis on the countries of North Africa and the Middle East (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia).

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Press release

Training page

SWIM-H2020 website