On the occasion of the celebration of the World Water Day on 22 March, the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched the Maghreb Non-Conventional Water Initiative (IMENCO) in order to address water scarcity in the Maghreb region.
Such Initiative will make it possible to "strengthen Maghreb cooperation in this field through the establishment of a Maghreb collaborative platform to capitalize on the experiences of the last decades to promote exchanges of good practices and the sharing of knowledge and research results”.
The initiative was launched in the framework of the High Level Maghreb Policy Dialogue, organised by the AMU in collaboration with the FAO Office for North Africa, which presented the visions, strategic orientations and approaches adopted for the use of the potential of the so-called non-conventional water resources.
Following the high-level dialogue, participants adopted a joint Ministerial Declaration of cooperation that reaffirms the countries' support to the IMENCO Initiative.
The MENBO Secretariat welcomes the Initiative and underlines the prominent place reserved to the development of non-conventional resources in the framework of the 5+5 Water Strategy in the Western Mediterranean (WSWM), being part of its key priorities and appearing in its Action Plan, which already directs towards the main concerns on the subject.
Please find hereby the AMU Ministerial Declaration in French, Arabic and English.