INFORMATION FOR THE JOINT MANAGEMENT OF SWR “CAPACITY NEEDS OF NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN ARAB STATES”

1. INFORMATION FOR THE JOINT MANAGEMENT OF SWR“CAPACITY NEEDS OF NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN ARAB STATES” By HOSNY KHORDAGUI Ph.D. Director of Water Governance Program in Arab States UNDP-RBAS “NATIONAL CAPACITY NEEDS FOR THE EFFECTIVE JOINT MANAGEMENT OF SHARED WATER RESOURCES IN ARAB STATES” TUNIS, 7 – 9 June 2010

2. What sort of information WE MEAN? • In order for riparian countries to properly & jointly manage their SWR they should agree upon the generation & exchange of information (ideally in real-time) on the following aspects: • hydrology, • meteorology, • water balance & allocations, • water quality & environmental flow, • hazardous spills & discharges, • operational control programs, etc.

3. ROLE OF INFORMATION IN THE JOINT MANAGEMENT OF SWR • Data on SWR need to be generated to 1- supply the national negotiating teams with adequate & reliable information, 2- exchange information with riparian countries for efficient joint management of SWR. • This requires capacity development of national institutions to regularly furnish harmonized & reliable information on quantitative & qualitative aspects of SWR management.

4. WHAT IS MONITORING? Monitoring is a sequence of activities that stars with the identification of information needs & culminates in the use of information.

6. 1- MONITORING FOR SWR MANAGMENT • Information needed to negotiate & manage SWR is generated by national monitoring systems developed & operated exclusively by governments. • Therefore, national monitoring institutions in Arab States need to be strengthened to avoid uninformed negotiations and/or mismanaged SWR.

7. STATUS OF MONITORING SYSTEMS FOR SWR MANGEMENT IN ARAB STATES • Inadequate and/or out-dated water monitoring systems. • Out-dated or inadequate monitoring & reporting regulations. • Fragmented & sector based monitoring institutions. • Insufficient technical & analytical capacity. • Scarce financial resources. • Poor design and/or management of existing water monitoring programs.

8. 2- INFORMATION NEEDS FOR SWR MANAGEMENT IN ARAB STATES • The ultimate purpose of monitoring is to furnish information not only data. • In most of Arab States, national water monitoring programs are not compatible (not harmonized) with each other & characterized by relative “rich data” & “poor information” syndrome. • The gap between data & information is attributed to serious inadequate technical capacities for data analysis, correlation, integration, interpretation & elucidation.

9. 3- MONITORING STARATEGIES FOR SWR MANAGEMENT • To transform information needs into monitoring networks to serve the joint management of SWR. • The water resources management systems in some Arab States are not well developed yet to design & implement monitoring strategies tailored specifically for the joint management of SWR. • Some riparian countries in Arab states aren’t able to answer (1) why (2) what (3) how much (4) where (5) how (6) who & (7) when to monitor.

10. 4- MANAGEMENT OF DATA IN ARAB STATES • Water data generated at national level in some Arab States is often not validated before dissemination. • Data is mostly in raw format with minimum analysis, interpretation or conversion into useful information & knowledge for the management of SWR. • Information isn’t regularly reported to officials in charge of negotiation & joint management of SWR. • Storing & archiving data is practiced by national monitoring bodies with minimum exchange with other relevant national agencies or joint bodies concerned with management of SWR.

11. 5- WHY Water Data is Often of Questionable Quality or irrelevant? • A large portion of water data suffers from significant quality uncertainty due to inadequate QA/QC programs to cover sampling, analysis & reporting. • The number of certified and/or accredited water monitoring systems generating reliable data is extremely limited in the Arab Region. • Water data suffer from lack of comparability with data from other riparian countries indicating the necessity for standardization & harmonization. • Discontinuous data monitoring, in terms of both temporal & spatial distributions, provides mostly snap shots hindering trend analysis and/or early warning. • Water monitoring programs are mostly designed to focus on the traditional aspects of national water management rather than the SWR management aspects.

12. 6- STANDARDIZATION, APPROXIMATION & HARMONIZATION • There is a need to standardize, approximate & hopefully harmonize information needed for the joint management of SWR. This can be based on jointly agreed standards & sharing of information & often conducting joint assessment of the SWR.

13. WHAT SHOULD BE HARMONIZED TO JOINTLY MANAGE SWR? • Standardization of methodologies for the quantitative & qualitative monitoring & evaluation of SWR. • Harmonization of ambient WQ standards & regulation for water pollution prevention. • Harmonization of reporting data & information on SWR in terms of structure, format & content. • Harmonization of concepts (IWRM) & techniques used in the management of SWR. • Harmonization of terminologies utilized in negotiations & multilateral dialogues.

14. CAPACITY NEEDS Negotiating & managing SWR rely largely on collected information from riparian countries. The following capacities need to be developed in monitoring for SWR: • Capacity to monitor, inspect & collect reliable SWR data. • Capacity to design & implement monitoring strategies for negotiating & managing SWR. • Capacity to analyze, interpret, evaluate & correlate SWR data. • Capacity to report, share & disseminate information on SWR. • Capacity to standardize methodologies, approximate procedures & harmonize systems for SWR management. • Capacity to enforce national water legislations & control measures to improve compliance. • Capacity to develop & operate national information systems to exchange information with riparian countries.

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