2. The concept of the Action Plan
2.1 Policy and funding orientation
The Marseilles Conference has defined a body of policy principles in order to guide Euro-Mediterranean collaboration for the improvement of local water resources management and established guidelines for co-operation in this sector. Specifically, economic and social development policies should take water management into proper account, considering the social and economic value of water and ensuring, within the framework of a global and integrated approach, that water is managed respecting its natural environment. Effective access to drinking water for the poorest people would have to be ensured. Water quality must be managed and quality standards for freshwater supply and for the disposal of waste water should be established.
Water needs to be managed in a participative manner, contributing to the enhancement of a sense of solidarity between different users. It should be recalled that water has always had an important place in Mediterranean culture. The value of water and other issues related to the sustainable management of water should be made known to people, by means of sufficient and accessible information.
In the region there is an increasing gap between potential water availability and foreseeable demand, which requires management policies for water uses and resources based on short, medium and long term development plans, which should take into account social, economic and environment criteria.
Water resources management should be based on integrated programmes containing all those measures required to implement the objectives of the water policy together with those measures required under other policies and relevant legislation. The idea is to achieve an overview of the measures needed to achieve all policy objectives in relation to a particular body of water (e.g. a river or a lake). This approach allows a degree of rationalisation and co-ordination of the different measures taken.
The integrated approach also helps to ensure protection of water as an economic resource by protecting and improving surface water and groundwater for environmental reasons and increasing the quality and protecting the quantity of water available.
The water policy must be flexible to avoid imposition of inappropriate or unnecessarily strict requirements simply for the sake of harmonisation. Such flexibility would also ensure that, where a problem is regionally specific, measures appropriate to that particular area could be taken. The range of environmental conditions in the Mediterranean basin is very wide and this must be taken into account.
Requirements for investment by individuals, private companies and/or public authorities must be targeted to the objectives of water policy and with a view to the cost-effectiveness of the measures. Long-term benefits and long-term environmental consequences of non-action must be fully taken into account, as must the precautionary principle.
A cost-effective strategy implies assessment from an economic perspective of advantages and disadvantages (emission reduction, quality improvement) of the three basic sets of policy instruments: regulations and standards, new technology and internalisation of external pollution costs through pricing and market-based incentives. These sets of policy instruments are not mutually exclusive and can be used as complementary or alternative measures depending on their relative cost-effectiveness to address water pollution as well as water scarcity issues.
Finally, water policy is not to be seen in isolation, but as a contributory element in the wider search for a balanced and sustainable development. And such a sustainable approach cannot be neither planned nor implemented in a satisfactory and efficient way without providing for broad consultation and participatory procedures of all actors concerned.
2.2 Structure of the Action Plan
A feature that clearly emerges, in spite of the proliferation of international activities in the region, is the shortage of specific programmes for the water sector, both as far as infrastructures and major environmental issues are concerned.
Furthermore the social, environmental and overall economic aspects need to be assessed at the national level, in order to maximise the availability of water resources with respect to the development objectives and make available the financial resources necessary for the large investments that are now indispensable.
It is important to build on existing organisations and co-operation schemes in the Mediterranean water sector because of their experience, rather than creating new ones. New organisations should only be created where a clear gap exists in competence or information requirements.
Water being among the six priority fields of co-operation retained within the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, it was felt necessary to define the framework for action and the rules for funding in this context through a specific Action Plan. This Plan, building on existing experience and providing from the outset for complementarity and synergy with other relevant programmes and organisations active in the region, intends to go a step further and facilitate covering the gaps. Its implementation will be achieved through projects of a considerable scale to be submitted by the interested Partners for funding. The major financial instrument to this end will be MEDA with both its regional and national programmes. This Action Plan will form a reference document vis-à-vis other sponsors and investors as well.
This Action Plan promotes the following six priority areas of actions:
The actions will be implemented at the regional and sub-regional level and/or on islands, depending on the countries' needs, whilst ensuring exchange of useful and essential experiences, taking into account environmental and nature needs.
Within each area of action the following horizontal themes will be integrated with a view to their implementation in specific, targeted ways based on the particular conditions and needs at the regional, sub-regional and local level:
Because of its importance, in particular in the Mediterranean socio-cultural context, awareness raising, mobilisation and promotion of commitment of the population is considered as major contribution to an efficient Action Plan for integrated local water management.
It is the basis to the needs of training and information and technology transfer. As well it forms the basic instrument for recognising such needs and helps setting them within the different contexts of the region.
The actions could be developed in two different directions:
In the following chapters priority areas and horizontal themes are described in order to define actions, which should be promoted and could be eligible for funding.
2.3 The stakeholders
The actions may involve institutional bodies and social organisations operating in the regions considered, assigning them different roles, such as: