In many places of the world, and more specifically in arid regions, mismanagement, water pollution and water shortage are threatening both the drinking water supply of the local population and the water supply irrigating the crops that feed this local population. A possible solution to the problem is to transport water from remote area. However this answer is not always satisfactory because of high financial costs and possible other problems (borders, regional instability, etc) involved.

There are two types of alternative solutions. The first one is to better manage the water demand in order to stabilise or reduce it. The second one, to be developed jointly, is to find alternative water resources. This approach will be followed by the new EU funded NEREIDES projects (Euro-Mediterranean Partnership), that will tackle the following
global objectives:

  I.      Justification and promotion of alternative solutions like seawater, storm water or reclaimed water for a sustainable and integrated water resource development in the Mediterranean area.

II.      Development of international co-operation to face current and future water shortage crisis through regional exchanges and collaboration between public institutions, private water companies and capacity building on technology (best practices), as well as planning and management know how.

The preliminary targeted countries are Morocco (Univ. of Ibn Tofail et al.), Tunisia (URME-ENIT et al.) and Cyprus (Univ. of Cyprus et al.); furthermore France (AR & INSULA) and Germany (KWB gGmbH) are involved as co-operation partners. The project is made for the numerous stakeholders involved in the water resource management, especially the local population and the municipal authorities in charge of environmental management. It does also target socio-economic activities like tourism and agriculture. The specific objectives are:

i)        Development and implementation of a software based integrated methodology to support the decision-making process with respect to the global objectives.

ii)       Development of information and training tools (CD-Rom and web based) to accompany the decision making process with an education program on different aspects of water resource management and development.

iii)     Study of alternative forms of financing for necessary investments like desalination and wastewater reuse plants.

The expected results can be summarised as deliverables of seven working packages:

1.      Full analysis and survey of the water resource and management situation at each site

2.      A database of the different technical solutions suitable to the Mediterranean countries

3.      A survey on the public and major stakeholders' perception on urban water issues

4.      A description and analysis of the different scenarios to solve local water shortage issues

5.      A decision making support methodology (software based)

6.      Development of the "Néréides communication" supporting activities

7.      A comparative analysis of the description of the different sites and development of the embryonic networking.