The 1st Arab Water Week, 5‐9th December, 2010 (Amman, Jordan)

The Arab Countries Water Utilities Association “ACWUA” hosted the 1st Arab Water Week entitled: “Cost Recovery at Water and Wastewater Utilities: Achievement, Challenges and Solutions) in cooperation with the Jordanian Ministry of Water and Irrigation in Le Meridien Hotel in Amman from 5-9 December 2010. The Arab Ministerial Council for Water had approved in its session held on the 2nd of July, 2010 - holding the Arab Water Week under the umbrella of the Arab League. ACWUA had since been working to make this event the first of its kind in the Arab region, and to define it as a bi-annually recurring conference. 

Invitations were sent to Arab Water Ministers in Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Palestine, Mauritanian, Qatar, and Morocco. This in addition to invitations to the General Secretariat of the Arab League and many other Arab and international organizations as well as funding agencies.

About more than 350 Arab and international specialists and experts in the water sector has participated in the conference, in addition to expert speakers in the conference sessions coming from international organizations such as the International Water Association (IWA), the German Water Partnership (GWP), the German Development Bank (KfW), the UN-HABITAT, the UN University, the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA), the Stockholm 

International Water Institute (SIWI), the German Agency for Training and Capacity Building (InWEnt), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The conference was sponsored by several international organizations such as the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the German Agency for Development (GTZ), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Berlinwasser International, IFAT – the world’s leading trade fair for water, sewage and waste management, and the German Water Partnership (GWP). 

The conference activities included signing several agreements intended to finance ACWUA’s Technical Working Groups and some of its other training and capacity building programs aimed at serving ACWUA’s members, as well as to organize for the participation of international organizations in ACWUA’s future conferences and exhibitions, in addition to sponsoring the participation of ACWUA in other international conferences and exhibitions.

Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) and The Arab Countries Water Utilities Association ACWUA will explore opportunities to engage SIWI in the ongoing ACWUA technical working groups: Capacity Building, and Water Resources Management. 

SIWI and ACWUA will explore opportunities to engage ACWUA at the 2011 World Water Week in Stockholm, as an exhibitor, convener or co-convener. ACWUA will therefore assist SIWI in marketing the 2011 World Water Week in Stockholm, 21 – 17, August, 2011. And SIWI will assist ACWUA in marketing the Arab Water Week 2012

SIWI and ACWUA will discuss opportunities for establishing a capacity building programme for the next Arab Water Week (2012), where SIWI will provide its long expertise in leading such programmes. 

In parallel to the conference activities, a match making workshop was held to prepare for ACWUA’s utilities twinning program, in cooperation with UN HABITAT, in addition to another workshop aimed at water sector regulators in the Arab region in cooperation with GTZ. Another important event that took place was the nomination and election of ACWUA’s second Board of Directors for the years 2011 – 2012. A 2-day training course was held also in cooperation with InWEnt for more than 50 leaders and executives working in the water sector in the Arab region addressing the topic of “Key Performance Indicators and Benchmarking for Water Utilities in the Arab Region”. Also in parallel to the conference activities, ACWUA inaugurated the first exhibition in the region for Arab and international organizations and experts in the water sector. 

The topic of the conference “Cost Recovery at Water and Wastewater Utilities” was chosen to be discussed during the 2-day conference for its importance and relevance to the issues and 

challenges that the water utilities in Jordan and the whole Arab region are facing in their everyday activities. In this regard, more than 50 technical working papers on the subject were presented by local, regional and international experts during the conference.

The opening ceremony for the conference was held with the participation of H.E. Eng. Mohammad Al Najjar, Jordanian Minister of Water and Irrigation, and several other Arab Water Ministers and dignitaries, and representatives from international and donor organizations.