SWIM is a Regional Technical Support Program that includes the following PartnerCountries(PCs): Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria[1]andTunisia. It is funded by the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) South/Environment. The Program complements and adds value to the Horizon 2020 Initiative to de-pollute the Mediterranean Sea by addressing in particular water issues, in synergy with three relevant EC funded Programs, namely the Mediterranean Hot Spots Investment Program - Project Preparation and Implementation Facility (MeHSIP-PPIF), the Capacity Building/Mediterranean Environment Program (CB/MEP) and the ENPI Shared Environmental Information System (ENPI/SEIS).
Its overall objective is to promote actively the extensive dissemination of sustainable water management policies and practices in the South Mediterranean region given the context of increasing water scarcity, combined pressure on water resources from a wide range of users and desertification processes, in connection with climate change.
The specific objectives of the Support Mechanism component of the SWIM Programme (SWIM-SM) are to: (1) Raise the awareness of decision-makers and stakeholders in the Partner Countries on existing and upcoming threats on water resources, on the necessity to switch to more viable water consumption models as well as on possible solutions to face the challenges; (2) to support the Partner Countries in designing and implementing sustainable water management policies at the national and local levels, in liaison with on-going relevant international initiatives; and (3) Contribute to institutional strengthening, to the development of the necessary planning and management skills and to the transfer of know-how.
Success storiesare a powerful tool for exchanging and disseminating experiences and knowledge. They test and validate the applicability of theory on the ground and help fine-tune it based on lessons learnt through successes and failures. They are preferred learning tools for experienced, high-level decision makers as they mix existing knowledge with experience from the field and can provide them with realistic and implementable solutions.
“Solutions” is an approach for contextualizing success stories together with suggestions for their potential replication. The term was recently put forth at a large scale by the Sixth World Water Forum (Marseilles, 2012). For SWIM, the concept of solutions is expected to exert substantial influence on the stories collected hence the success stories will primarily present local solutions for sustainable water resources management that however have replicability potential at regional scale. Among key criteria for the selection of SWIM solutions will be socio-economic aspects, such as job creation and the high cost efficiency for making the solution implementable. Furthermore, in the wider context of global developments, including the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, the solutions would address, where applicable, elements of the Water, Food and Energy Nexus.
The identification of good practices & success stories in the region & elsewhere”, represents a strong component of SWIM-SM workplan. Already in 2013, a series of success stories/best practices on a) increased efficiency in wastewater treatment and reuse and b) non-revenue water management, were collected from different SWIM Partner Countries (PCs). As a follow-up, SWIM-SM is planning during 2014 to collect, validate and publish additional solutions applied in the SWIM PCs primarily falling under the SWIM-SM pillars and sub-pillars listed below:
A. Non-conventional water
- Wastewater treatment and reuse
- Desalination using renewable resources
B. Water Financing, including the theme of private sector involvement
C. Water Governance:
- Water Users Associations (WUAs)
- IWRM and ICZM
- Enforcement of water legislation
D. No-regret actions for adaptation to climate change
[1] Cooperation with Syria is temporarily suspended until further notice from the EU