International Seminar on River Basin Management and Cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean Region - General Assembly of the Mediterranean Network of Basin Organizations (MENBO)

An « International Seminar on River Basin Management and Cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean Region » will take place within the next General Assembly of the Mediterranean Network of Basin Organizations (MENBO), at the invitation of the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water, the General Directorate for Water and Electricity Resources and of the Litani National Authority: From 6 to 9 October 2009 at Safir Heliopolitan Hotel, in BEIRUT - LEBANON
 
A meeting of the working group on monitoring of the « Med/EMWIS Joint Process », will also take place on this occasion.
 
Hereafter the form necessary for your registration: http://www.semide.net/media_server/files/M/V/FichedeparticipationAG-REMOB2009-BEYROUTH-Fr.2.doc

There will be simultaneous translation into English, Spanish and French.
Registration to the conference is free of charge.
 
The aim of INBO and MENBO is to enable the European and Mediterranean Basin Organizations and their partners to regularly and informally meet to exchange their practical experiences.
 
For the Member States of the European Union in particular, the implementation of the Water Framework Directive is entering now into an active and practical phase, directly involving the Basin Organizations or the "District Authorities", and it is interesting to compare their approaches. Several tools developed within this framework could be of great use for other Countries of the Mediterranean Basin, such as those already tested in several projects of the "joint process" or the European Water Initiative (Med-EUWI).
 
The Mediterranean basin is likely to be one of the areas in the world where the effect of climate change will be most significant on water resources.
 
The specific issues of water management in the Mediterranean basin will be at the core of our work and our meeting will be organized around three large current topics:
 
1.   Water and agriculture in the Management Plans of the  Mediterranean basins, in relation with EIC, co-organizer,
2.   Adaptation to climate change and water saving,
3.   Usefulness of the tools of the European Water Framework Directive in the Mediterranean Countries, non-members of the EU (Monitoring, Management Plans, Program of Measures, Financing...).
 
You are invited to present a paper on your experiments: The title and summary should be delivered to me before 15 September 2009 at the following e-mail addresses:
inbo@wanadoo.fr and remoc1@remoc.org.
 
We will also discuss about the preparation of the Mediterranean Strategy for Water, following the Ministerial Conference of the Dead Sea in December 2008 and the meeting of the national experts in September in Athens, within the Union for the Mediterranean.
 
The participants will be exceptionally and officially received by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Lebanon.
 
A technical visit will be organized by the Litani National Authority in the Bekaa plain on Friday 9 October all day. A visit at the home office of the Litani National Authority is planned as well as at the new Research Center of Khirbet Kanafar, an irrigation project, the Quaraoun dam, the Hydropower Station of Ibrahim Abdel Aal - Markaba and, on the way back, of the famous Roman ruins of the Baalbek temple (Beware: departure early in the morning and return late in the evening). Thank you for registering in advance.
 
The meeting and technical visit are open to all INBO member organizations and observers, and to all the Mediterranean water administrations and organizations, interested in basin management and in the implementation of the Framework Directive, as well as of the member and candidate countries of the European Union, of the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, etc.
 
Any useful information, programs and proposed papers will be continuously available on the websites: www.inbo-news.org and www.remoc.org .
 
A meeting of INBO World Liaison Bureau will also take place on 6 October in the afternoon, at the Safir Heliopolitan hotel in Beirut.
 
I thank you in advance for kindly returning, at your earliest convenience, the enclosed registration form to inbo@wanadoo.fr and remoc1@remoc.org, in order to facilitate the good organization of the meeting and your best welcoming in BEIRUT.
 
I would advise you to arrive on Tuesday 6 October 2009 in the morning, at Beirut international airport. If your agenda allows it, you could leave Beirut on Saturday 10 in the morning or on Sunday 11 October.
 
Your hotel booking at Safir Heliopolitan Hotel, (http://www.safirheliopolitan.com/hotel.htm), at group discount price, including the transfers from Beirut airport to the hotel and return, must be made through the travel agency: « Mounassabattcom for Congresses & Exhibitions », mandated by the GDHER, and where your contacts are Mrs. Alice Yammine and Ms. Petra Chedid :
Tel. +9619900111, Fax : +9619900110, Mobile : +9613986950, E. mail : events@mounassabattcom.com .
 
For any information concerning the practical organization of the conference, please contact the Secretariat of the General Directorate for Water and Electicity Resources (GDHER), which will be our host in Lebanon with the Litani National Authority: gdher@terra.net.lb and litani@litani.gov.com .
 
Unfortunately, organizers cannot take charge of your air travel expenses and hotel accommodation in Beirut.

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A side meeting will be organised by EMWIS for the Water monitoring network working group of the Phase II of the Med Joint Process between the Med-EUWI and the Water Framework Directive. This workshop will focus on the results of the water monitoring networks survey undertook among Mediterranean countries recently and the preparation a state of play.

Water Monitoring Working Group meeting, Beirut 2009-10-06 (14.30-17.30)

Declaration of Beirut, 8 October 2009/

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Déclaration de Beyrouth, 8 octobre 2009