News & Events

The ReWater MENA project, a project funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), reached its end after four intense years of collaborative research between different partners.

Recycling water could supplement, or substitute water needs in sectors suffering from water shortage, reduce groundwater pumping and alleviate the use of freshwater in the agricultural sector, researchers of the "Water reuse in Middle East and North Africa: A sourcebook” have reported.

The ReWater MENA project has been working since 2018 on expanding the safe reuse of water in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with a focus on Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. After four years of many learnings, dialogues, collaborations and knowledge production about water reuse in the region, the closing workshop will be the occasion to synthesize the key learnings and practical outputs of the project.

Water scarcity and pollution are major threats for human development in the Middle East, and Lebanon is no exception. Wastewater treatment and its reuse in agriculture can contribute to addressing the increasing water crisis in the region. But, what is the actual potential of water reuse as a solution for agriculture in Lebanon?

The Second Regional Science-Policy Dialogue on “Innovative Solutions and Policy Actions for Water Reuse in the MENA Region” was held in Cairo, Egypt, on the 5 & 6 of July 2022. The two-day event brought together different stakeholders to reflect on the diversity of challenges and solutions related to water reuse in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Lebanon is experiencing several crises: political, economic, and financial, and the water sector is also paying the price. The country, located at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arab hinterland, is found in one of the most vulnerable places in the world to climate change, but it is human interference that plays the bigger part in water systems’ degradation.

Since 2018, IWMI has supported the Lebanese government to develop its water reuse policies through the ReWater MENA initiative.

Jordan is one of the MENA countries facing severe water shortages. The rampant increase in water demand by the municipal sector and the large consumptive use of water by agriculture are definitely beyond the country’s water budget.

Water Reuse occupied a prominent place in the 2021 Arab Water Forum and was the topic of focus of two important sessions of this three days event.