Caïro Water Week plenary session on non conventional water resources

A special Plenary session during the Cairo Water week was held on the 24^th of October. This event addressing Innovative solutions for water scarcity under climate changing conditions. The Moderator of this session was Prof. Dr. Alaa El Zwahry, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt. Over 250 participant attended  this session representing studend and professor from university, international organizations (FAO, UNDP, AWC, EU, GIZ, ASCWA, IMI, CID, …) Polician , Private companies, and NGO’s.

Water resources and it’s availability

 The supply side addresses the water resources and it’s availability. The water resources is always classified as conventional (surface water and groundwater), and non-conventional water resources.

• The non-conventional term includes several sources such as brackish ground water, desalination, rain harvesting, flood harvesting, reuse of treated wastewater, reuse of drainage water, reuse and recycling of treated industrial water, cloud seeding, and others.

In this session, the respectful speakers addressed the non-conventional water resources experiences in different locations in the world.

• The experience of water resources management in Palestine, using desalination and reuse of wastewater will be shared and addressed. 
• The development and application of integrated technological and management solutions for wastewater treatment and efficient reuse in agriculture (MADFORWATER) in three different basins (Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt) will be shared.
• The selection of adequate wastewater treatment level and technology for the purpose of reuse is important in order to balance between the cost and achieving the target.
• The Jucar River Basin ( 49.22 m³/s , and 509 km), Spain situation regarding non-conventional resources, as well as the integration of such resources within the drought management plans were addressed.

The session was chaired by the Palestinian ministry of water. The session was organized in the form of Panel with five presentation. Dr. Redouane Choukr-Allah from IVA Hassan presented the innovation solutions of MADFORWATER project. He also presented the project during in the boot of FAO stand and distributed leaflets on the project for the participant and visitors od the Stand of FAO in the exhibition room.

Keynote Speakers of the session were:

• Prof.Dr. Redouane Choukr Allah Representative of MAD4WATER project, FAO.
• Representative, Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities, Egypt.
• Dr.ir. Jules van , Sanitary Engineering, University of Technology, TU Delft.
• Ms. Laura Tanco ,(EU), Jucar River Basin Authority.
• Dr. Yuehu Kang, Chinese Academy of Science.
• H.E. Eng. Mazen Ghunaim, Head of the Palestinian Water Authority, Palestine