The Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation and Chairman of the Arab Water Council and Arab Water Academy Mahmoud Abou Zeid is due to inaugurate the third international conference on water resources and dry environment and the First Arab Forum for Water. The forum is organized by the Arab Council for Water in cooperation with King Saud University and the Saudi Ministry of Water and Electricity. The forum will start its procedures in Riyadh on November 16 sponsored by Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz. The conference will be attended by the chairman of the Prince Sultan Research Center for Environment, Water and Desert, Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdel Aziz, as well as some Arab water ministers; representatives of Arab and international organizations concerned with water in the Arab region; representatives of the League of Arab States; experts in water and environment; presidents of universities, research centers and international authorities and organizations; and several scientists, researchers, media pundits and people concerned with water and the environment. According to Minister Abou Zeid, the forum will focus on water security in the Arab region as well as water management to face the challenges imposed by scarce water. He then added other points on the agenda would be providing food, facing the consequences of climate change, sharing water through common basins among Arab countries and their neighbors, discussing mechanisms to calculate hypothetical water and their role in avoiding water crises so as to achieve sustainable water development in the Arab World. Speaking to the press yesterday, Abou Zeid said the forum is taking place four months before the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul (Turkey). He said this fifth forum is the world's most important venue to discuss water. He then added that the Arab Council of Water will be in charge of coordinating the Arab role at the forum itself by preparing a comprehensive regional report on the efforts aimed at filling the gap between resources and needs. He also said this report should deal with the threats to sustainable development, which very much depends on water. Abou Zeid and his delegation are also going to take part in the founding meeting of the Arab Water Ministers Council in Riyadh next Saturday. The meeting will adopt the Council's statute, which has been prepared by the Arab League Secretariat General to implement the resolution of the Arab League Social and Economic Council in its 82nd session on August 28, 2008.
