Brussels, 19/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - Speaking in Madrid on 18 February, the Spanish minister of the rural and marine environment Elena Espinosa, whose country holds the six-month rotating Presidency of the EU, announced the launch of a Mediterranean Water Management Strategy, to be formally approved at a Euro-Med ministerial conference in Barcelona on 13 April. The first meeting of Euro-Mediterranean water experts took place in Athens on 7-8 September 2009. Despite significant progress made over the last 20 years in most countries of the region, water-related challenges remain considerable and have been aggravated by the increase in population and by climate change, the experts noted.
In comments reported in the Spanish press, Espinosa said that this strategy was among the objectives of the Union for the Mediterranean. It seeks to transfer technology and knowledge on prevention and mitigation of drought among the countries around the Mediterranean rim, she said. The water management strategy must, she added, be based on “an adjustment and a better balance between consumer demand and the supply of available resources”. This would mean that “water production, consumption and re-utilisation models will have to be redefined”. In Athens in 2009, the experts were set the task of drafting a strategy that would bring about a sound institutional, social, economic and ecological environment that is supported by appropriate planning and implementation. (F.B./transl.rt)