Based on the latest news Mann River and Lake Mar have been polluted by excessive fertilization, and livestock and industrial waste. With each day of inaction, the potential for ecological degradation worsens and pollution threatens the drinking water supply for the residents of the towns and villages in the region, has led to the ban of fishing due to contamination, it is threatening tourism and mainly the restaurant industry as this region is
famous for its mild weather and food variety.
Does the above sound familiar to you? It might, since it refers to a set of conditions and problems often experienced by South Mediterranean Basins. How to evaluate the damages and prioritize specific actions for improving the management of the basins is at the heart of a document recently released by the EU-funded project Sustainable Water Integrated Management – Support Mechanism (SWIM-SM) to assist decision-makers at the national and local levels.
The hypothetical case study on Mann River and Lake Mar provides both the theoretical instruments and methods and practical exercises to build the capacity of South Mediterranean stakeholders in this process. The material has been successfully tested during two courses recently organized by SWIM-SM for Mashrek and Maghreb countries.
The practical section, in particular, provides the necessary tools to valuate water-related diseases, degradation of water quality and quantity, fossil aquifer replenishment, deterioration due to solid waste and selective remedial costs.
Drawbacks of the process, due to methodological limitations and lack of accessibility to reliable information, are also highlighted in the document.
In the past two years SWIM-SM has focused on assessing the cost of water resources degradation and remediation measures in four South Mediterranean River Basins (Litani in Lebanon, Medjerda in Tunisia, Oum Er-Rbia in Morocco and Seybouse in Algeria) in order to demonstrate the usefulness of quantifying economic gains and losses from a range of water management decisions and particularly in view of promoting:
better allocations from the current budget to support management of environment and water resource sectors;
better guidance to business about most efficient investments;
better infrastructure investment decisions that reflect all the potential gains from sustainable management of environment or water sectors.
To download the assessments and policy notes prepared for the above-mentioned River Basins, please click here
here.
