WES PRESS RELEASE 

Athens, 5 November 2021

Early lessons from WES Demonstration Projects presented at the Cairo Water Week 2021

The Southern Mediterranean is facing multiple pressures on its scarce and fragile water resources due to climate change, rapid population growth, unsustainable land use and consumption patterns, that cannot be sufficiently addressed by most countries of the region. Developing and disseminating innovative replicable approaches and successful practices in the field of Integrated Water Resources Managemen (IWRM) is a key part of the EU funded WES project, which aims at protecting the environment and improving the management of scarce water resources in the Mediterranean region. An integral part ofthe WES project is a set of DEMO projects that try to showcase innovative technologies, processes and methods addressing different aspects of water management challenges. 
Within this context, as part of the fourth edition of the Cairo Water Week, focussing this year on “Water, Population and Global Changes: Challenges and Opportunities” (CWW 2021), WES organized the session on “Early Lessons from ongoing WES Demonstration Projects (DEMO)” on Wednesday 27 October 2021.
The DEMO projects presented were about:
◼ Enhancing the resilience of vulnerable communities through efficient water solutions and addressing climate change in the Eastern area of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip (Palestine);
◼ Showcasing water-efficient Innovative Solutions Portfolio for Enhancing Resilience (WISPER Tunisia, Jordan);
◼ Saving Water, Growing Crops: Remote-controlled irrigation system to address water scarcity and promote preservation of available freshwater resources (Lebanon);
◼ Promoting sustainable water supply and demand and knowledge transfer to enhance water infrastructure resilience in the Gaza Strip (GAZA H2.O - Palestine);
◼ Promoting integrated water resource management in oases environment (Morocco);
◼ Valorising urban water through innovative actions and instruments (ValEUr Gabes - Tunisia).

All DEMO projects aim at promoting innovative technical and institutional solutions that lead to efficient use of water in both urban and rural areas. All projects are in their first year of implementation and had to find their way through a series of obstacles created by a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and several serious economic and political crises in the region. Despite these unfavourable circumstances, progress was made and there is the potential for many more results in the coming years and scaling up or replication elsewhere. WES monitors the progress, provides ad hoc Technical Assistance necessary to address difficulties or other needs identified and assists them with effective communication and visibility activities. The CWW 2021 platform provided WES and DEMO project partners with a valuable opportunity to disseminate early lessons useful for many actors in the region.