The Coordination Unit of the Consultation Mechanism of the North-Western Sahara Aquifer System (NWSAS) is organizing, in Tunis from 9 to 13 July 2018, a workshop and training on Modeling: approach and integrated measures for a sustainable and resilient management of the NWSAS water resources.
The workshop aims to refine the expertise of the participants in the field of modeling and to engage in dialogue with the representatives of the three partner countries with a view to formulating new prospects for the evolution of the NWSAS Consultation Mechanism, in a new pluralistic approach (NEXUS) while taking into account the well-being of the local populations and the final beneficiaries.
This workshop follows a series of workshops organized in favor of the three concerned countries (Algeria, Libya and Tunisia) in 2017, which focused on the collection and processing of piezometric data and water quality. These data were used in feeding the SASS project shared database.
Sponsored by the GWP-Med, this workshop brings together some thirty participants, including representatives of the three countries sharing the NWSAS (Algeria, Tunisia, Libya), as well as a number of representatives of OSS and the Global Water Partnership for Sustainable Development (GWP-Med).
The workshop was opened by Mr. Abdelkader Dodo, Coordinator of the OSS Water Program, who delivered a speech on behalf of the OSS Executive Secretary, Mr. Khatim Kherraz. On this occasion, he commended the expertise and perseverance of the experts of Algeria, Libya and Tunisia in building a framework of trust and complementarity embodied in the NWSAS Consultation Mechanism. He also emphasized the negative impacts of water abstraction from the aquifer, namely pumping, disappearance of artesianism and water and soil salinization. Finally, he stressed the importance of an efficient use of the NWSAS water resources and the need for a paradigm shift in development to avoid the expected proliferation of these negative impacts by 2050. Mr. Dodo concluded by reaffirming OSS commitment to provide multi-faceted support to countries, to mobilize its partners, and to provide decision makers with useful information for an informed decision-making.
Mr. Rachid Taibi, Coordinator of the NWSAS Consultation Mechanism, for his part, provided an overview about the NWSAS Consultation Mechanism. The latter was created in 2002 and represents one of the world’s rare consultation mechanisms. He then stressed that water is a cross-cutting element which is mainly used for population, agriculture, industry and energy. Therefore, he invited the participants to make further contribution for the evolution of the Consultation Mechanism, notably taking into account the current situation and their outreach work. This could lead to a new project idea that takes into account all these concerns.
The North-Western Aquifer System (NWSAS) is an aquifer that covers an area of 1 million km2. It is an immense reservoir of water essential to the development of the region, both for domestic and agricultural needs. However, the aquifer has been subject for the few last decades to overexploitation (water abstraction increased from 500 million m3 per year in 1950 to more than 3 billion m3 per year today), in addition to the degradation of water quality and the significant decline in the aquifer level.