MELIA KICK OFF MEETING

Seville, 4-7 September 2006

Layout

Prof. Rafael Rodríguez-Clemente. CSIC

MELIA Coordinator

The long way of MELIA…

• Water Workshop of INCO-Med for FP6. Marrakech May 2002: the idea

• April 2003: submission of the MELIA proposal: 63 partners

• November 2003: refusal after evaluation• September 2004: new proposal: 45 partners• January 2005: approuval of the proposal for

negotiation• September 2005: approuval pf the technical

Annex• September 2006:Kick-Off

The long way of MELIA: minor incidents…• E-mail does not work…, there are no replies to urgent things (or so thinked the Coordinator…)

• Replies takes a long time…, especially from the Commission, blocked in its almost permanent reorganisation

• Names are not what they look like…

• Somebody died waiting for MELIA…

• Someone leaved the institution…, nobody else knows anything about MELIA

• The signature does not correspond to the responsible…

• Few remember their Cost Model in previous project…

• Legal documents of companies are a legal labyrinth in all countries and a nightmare for everybody…

• Suddenly a war, or something like, changes the travel plans…

• Nobody said anything about the work plan…

• Few people believed that MELIA will survive to the administrative jungle of the 45 partners and the Commission services

But…

• Water is becoming the biggest problem of the 21th century

Water stress results from an imbalance between water use and water resources. The water stress indicator in this map measures the proportion of water withdrawal with respect to total renewable resources

MELIA

• What ?

• Why ?

• How ?

• Who ?

• What for ?

• When ?

What?• Water availability is a prerequisite and a limiting factor for the

sustainable development of the Mediterranean region. Water scarcity is taking a terrible toll on people everywhere in the Mediterranean, especially in southern Mediterranean.

• Water yields of southern Mediterranean countries are constant or reducing, but demand for water increases steadily for the different uses and for the different areas.

• The dynamic process of managing limited water resources and demand is changing:

– there is a shift away from sole reliance on finding new sources of supply to address perceived new demand;

– a growing awareness on the importance of preventing and mitigating water conflicts;

– a growing emphasis on incorporating sustainability values into water policy;

– a re-emphasis on meeting basic human needs for water services and associated social issues

• The situation shows today that water production systems (urban, agricultural, and industrial) perform poorly in the Southern and many parts of the Northern and Eastern Mediterranean

Why us?: The problem• Research on water management is a research priority in the Euro-

Mediterranean area, but there is a lack of visibility of the important role that Science and Technology play in the sustainable development of the region.

• The product of these research programs and projects find difficulties to transform in concrete proposals.

• The experts propose technical solutions for some problems, but often they

do not consider the social, economic or political links and implications of technical solution, nor the local cultural sensibility. This lack of consideration often leads to the failure of the applications of their model.

• Most of the times, the decisions related to water management ignores the

opinion of the end users and do not call for their commitment and participation. The efficiency of water planning and management is strongly related to the collective concern on its issues.

• Part of these problems is due to lack of dialog between the different protagonists, and to communication gaps between political bodies, administrative institutions, scientists, sociologists, lawyers, economists, end-users and citizens.

By means of…• Building a knowledge base for integrated water resources management (IWRM) based

on the general frame defined by EU Water Framework Directive.

• Develop a Mediterranean-wide awareness of the social (cultural and participatory), economic and technological issues related to water management.

• Propose participatory mechanisms and prevention tools to avoid conflicts between regions, states and different waters users.

• Provide legislative and administrative bodies with criteria and arguments agreed in a consensual way to support sustainable water policies and economy.

• Provide the intellectual basis and the indicators to perform a benchmarking exercise of Integrated Water resources management in the Mediterranean area.

• General terms referred to IWRM are used with different meanings and implications. Therefore, the use of common terminology and semantic will be addressed in MELIA in order to facilitate the development of a common language and help water negotiations.

Who is concerned?ACTORS KNOWS IGNORESPolititians Public demands

Local culture

Technical solutions

Long term impacts

Administrators Cost of services Social dynamics

Environmental constrains

Basin managers Water demands Political dynamic

Climatic changes

Industrial users Water needs Impacts of waste

Farmers Waters needs Other`s needs

Environmentalist Long term impacts Water price

Social context

Water scientist Water cicle

Contaminant impact

Legal frames

Social demands

General public Their water needs How water is provided

WHO?• P1 – Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas – CSIC – Spain• P2– Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques

Méditerranéennes - Istituto Agronomico Mediterraneo of Bari (CIHEAM-IAMB) - Italy

• P3 – National High School of Hydraulic Studies – ENHS – Algeria• P4 – Lebanese Agriculture Research Institute – LARI – Lebanon • P5 – The National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences

– NARSS – Egypt• P6 – The Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan – UOJ - Jordan • P7 – Office Internationale de l’Eau - France• P8 – Water Service Corporation – WSC – Malta• P9 – Institut National de Recherches en Génie Rural et Forets –

INGREF -Tunisia• P10 – Sustainable Europe Research Institute – SERI - Austria• P11 – Institut des Régions Arides, Laboratoire Erémologie & Lutte

Contre la Désertification. Médenine – IRA - Tunisia• P12 – Group Poulina – POULINA – Tunisia • P13 – Palestinian Hydrology Group for Water and Environmental

Resources Development, Center for Water and Environmental Research and Policy – PHG - Palestine

• P14 – Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, University of Damascus – UOD - Syria

• P15 – University Cadi Ayyad, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia – FSSM - Morocco

• P16 – Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II of Rabat and Agadir – IAV - Morocco

• P17 – Agricultural structures and irrigation department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cukurova University – CU - Turkey

• P18 – Middle East Technical University-Water Resources Centre – METU-WRC - Turkey

• P19 – Agricultural Research Institute – ARI - Cyprus• P20 – University of Cordoba – UCO - Spain• P21 – University of Barcelona, Department of Vegetal Biology, – UB -

Spain

• P22 – Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya - MAC - Spain• P23 – Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya – UPC - Spain• P24 – Piccola Società Cooperativa a.r.l. Ipogea - IPOGEA - Italy• P25 – Acquedotto Pugliese SpA – AQP – Italy • P26 – Agricultural University of Athens – A.U.A. - Greece• P27 –National Agriculture Research Foundation, Institute of Iraklio,

Department of Water Resources and Environment – N.AG.RE.F. – Greece

• P28 – Litani River Authority – LRA – Lebanon • P29 – Alice Production – ALICE – Belgium• P30 – The Institute for Agriculture, University of Malta – IOA - Malta• P31 – Jordan Valley Farmers Association – JVFA – Jordan • P32 – Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Strategic Research

Unit – MWRI - Egypt• P33 – Ministry of Agriculture National Centre for Agriculture Research

and Technology Transfer – NCARTT - Jordan• P34 – Centre for New Water Technologies - CENTA, Seville, Spain• P35 – Istituto Sperimentale Agronomico (Agronomical Research

Institute) – ISA - Italy• P36 – Malta Resources Authority – MRA – Malta • P37 – Land Research Centre – LRC – Palestine • P38 – Ministry of Agriculture – MoA – Palestine• P39 – Directorate of Irrigation and Water Uses – Ministry of Agriculture

and Agrarian Reform – DIWU - Syria • P40 – Office de Mise en Valeur Agricole of Souss Massa, Ministry of

Agriculture – ORMVA - Morocco• P41 – Centre de Développement de la Région de Tensift – CDRT –

Morocco• P42 – South Eastern Anatolia Project – Regional Development

Administration – GAP-RDA - Turkey• P43 – Centro Italiano per la Riqualificazione Fluviale – CIRF - Italy• P44 – Red Mediterránea de Organismos de Cuenca (REMOC)

(Mediterranean Network of Basin Organisations). Spain • P45 – Sanliurfa Kisas Water Users Association – KISAS – Turkey

The partnership of MELIA has been structured in a way to include, on

the one hand, players with experience in the scientific, technical and

socio-economic sectors, experienced in past or on-going European,

national or regional projects and committed to a dialogue without

prejudices.

The Partners

The presence of groups and administrations from different sectors

and countries will allow MELIA to create a wide dialogue to prevent and

avoid conflicts related to water availability.

Other actors, such as basin management organisations, water

suppliers to cities, industrial groups, agriculture water users, NGO with

well known experience in daily management of water related issues, bring

their deep knowledge about the current management systems, the

expected demand and the possible baseline of the future conflicts.

How?

• MELIA will structure a vertical and horizontal dialogue among the key stakeholders concerned and affected by water use and management

• Indicators, conceptual frames, indications and recommendation to policy and decision makers should arise only from the most ample dialogue, debate and consensus of all the categories of actors

• Continuous interaction with the INCO (Research Directorate General of the EC) and the Monitoring Committee of the Euro-Med RTD Cooperation, and other projects and networks dealing with similar issues will be maintained during the CA lifetime.

Organisation of Works: Kick-Off

– Definition and agreement on the objectives

– Road map of expected achievements, meetings and deliverables

– Communication and work device supported by Intranet (e-GroupWare referred to each Work Package, development of on-line Community of Practice )

– Distribution of responsibilities among the partners

– An organised information base and a library of information sources

Organisation of Works: during the project…

- Gathering of documents and relevant information. Uploading to the corresponding library or forum

- Comments and proposal of discussion.- Organisation of debates and elaboration of draft recommendations

in the WP- Organisation of Workshops- Contacts to other projects or initiatives tackling the MELIA

objectives- Participation in events related to the objectives of MELIA

Organisation of Works: during the project

• Formulation of conceptual interlinking for rational integration of the different aspects of water resources management;

• Construction of shared/common conceptual frames regarding the various aspects of water management as identified in different Work Packages;

• Integration and construction of a common “integrated” knowledgebase,

• Analysis of information/input provided by the external players and citizens in the Internet based dialogue;

• Analysis of water scarcity and policy indicators, and increase awareness in regard to present “deception of numbers” linked to indicators;

• Formulation of recommendation to policy-decision makers on the regional application of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in the Mediterranean

Organisation of Works: MEASUREMENTS OF PERFORMANCE IN THE

PARTICIPATION

All partners will have defined tasks and goals to be fulfilled in due time, which will be measured in terms of:

- Nº of contributed information uploaded in the project libraries- Nº of contributions to the debates in the forums- Nº of contacts to target groups of stakeholders- Attendance to MELIA Meetings and contributions - Preparation of dissemination materials- Links to other projects o initiatives

-…

Organisation of Works: Delivering– Building up consensus documents produced by participants in the

progress events (Seminar for Capacity Building) (knowledge adaptation and sharing)

– Transversal consensus meetings (Workshops) between participants in different Work Packages

– Analysis of information, literature and practical experiences of dissemination

– Production of documents, reports and other types of materials to raise public, political and technical awareness on the objectives of MELIA, (knowledge generation and creation)

– Dissemination of documents to different levels of stakeholders (knowledge dissemination and transfer)

– Public presentation activities

The impact question

(from the pamphlet “Increasing Impact of the EU`INCO for the transition towards sustainable development”)

• How to make research results more policy relevant?

• What is the definition of success in a policy oriented project?

• How can we handle the continuum between competition and cooperation?

• How can we interest social actors in a research project?

Some answers…

• The major challenge of INCO is to maintain communication with key social actors (Bogliotti)

• Social actors need to see a tangible benefit for themselves from participation (Spangenberg)

• The imperative of sustainability, i.e., competitiveness, cohesion, ecosystem protection,improving knowledge, improving gobernance…,should be presented in the design of projects (Bogliotti)

• The scattered results of research should be organised and make available to the users (Nauen)

• There must be indicators of impact in the research project (Bogliotti)

What for MELIA ?• Building a knowledge base for integrated water resources management

(IWRM) planning, based on integrating contributions from the wider spectra of perspectives, able to be used by the large spectrum of stakeholders and based on the general frame defined by EU Water Framework Directive.

• Develop a Mediterranean-wide awareness of the social (cultural and participatory), economic and technological issues related to water management.

• Propose participatory mechanisms and prevention tools to avoid competition in resources allocation between regions states and different waters users.

• Provide legislative and administrative bodies with criteria and arguments agreed in a consensual way by a wide representation of social, economic, scientific and political actors from different countries, to support sustainable water policies and economy.

What for MELIA ?

• Provide the intellectual basis and the indicators to perform a benchmarking exercise of Integrated Water resources management in the Mediterranean area.

• General terms referred to IWRM are used with different meanings and implications. Therefore, beside the construction of a common frame and knowledge, also the use of common terminology and semantic will be talked in the dialogue of MELIA, in order to facilitate the development of a common language and help water negotiations.

• The achievement of this dialog and the dissemination and exploitations of the recommendations obtained will create real added value at the European and Mediterranean scale.

Arrival points of MELIA(also named deliverables, outputs,…)

• Establish a Euro-Mediterranean-wide structure to enable communication and dialogue between Researchers, Policy and Decision Makers (governmental institutions such Ministries), water users, basins managers, associations and NGO aiming at finding the common grounds based on a sound knowledge management for a sustainable development, and the correct and effective management of water resources

• Helping to create a Reference System to support decision making in normal regulation process and situations of natural water crisis. The dialogue will indirectly constitute a platform for enhancing the attribution of common meanings to technical and non-technical terms and the use of a common semantic (see also “Other issues”), and the acceptance of standards to be used in technical cooperation or the application of shared common indicators.

Arrival points of MELIA(also named deliverables, outputs,…)

• Promote and facilitate continuous Internet, media and other means, based dialogue with citizens, through project partners acting as national focal points. Link activities to the real needs and concerns of the Mediterranean countries.

• Disseminate and ease the access to the relevant common knowledge.

• Discuss and prepare a comprehensive conceptual framework to plan regional sustainable water management based on an efficient system and policy setting.

• Create a gateway for the introduction of the criteria and tools of

the “Water Directive” in the Mediterranean countries.

Risks of MELIA

• Ontology gaps among participants coming from different technical fields

• Cultural gaps and lack of assessment of the social perception of the water issues

• Inability to tackle specific problems in the local context

• Lack of participation of some partners • Lack of respect to the scheduled calendar• Inability to reach consensus among participants• Inability to communicate with policy makers and

administrators

Management of Risks

• All these risks will be monitored by the Steering Committee (SC) along the project, and they will be tackled through the appropriate management level, notably the Coordinator and the Management Board.

• Lack of participation and engagement will provoke withdrawal from the project, and return of the advanced money. This extreme case will be endorsed by the SC

• Lack of consensus will be resolved through dialogue and, in extreme cases, by significant agreement of a large majority of partners.

The MELIA Consortium is composed by 45 partners representing 17

countries from both the EU (Italy, Spain, France, Cyprus, Greece, Belgium,

Malta, Austria) and the Mediterranean (Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia,

Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine) and different categories: Research

Institutions, Decision-Policy Makers, Users, International or

Intergovernmental Organizations, NGOs.

The Consortium

The wide range of categories involved in MELIA and the governmental and

intergovernmental status of some partners will help to reach and apply

concrete results and will be effective on the problems related to water

management in the territory. The structure of MELIA includes most of the

relevant water stakeholders in the discussion of the issues related to the

integrated and sustainable water management in the Mediterranean area.

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Building a knowledge base for integrated water resources management (IWRM) planning, based on integrating contributions from different perspectives, involving the wide spectrum of stakeholders and based on the general frame defined by EU Water Framework Directive.

Develop a Mediterranean-wide awareness of the social (cultural and participatory), economic and technological issues related to water management.

Propose participatory mechanisms and prevention tools to avoid competition in resources allocation between regions states and different waters users.

Provide legislative and administrative bodies with criteria and arguments agreed in a consensual way by a wide representation of social, economic, scientific and political actors from different countries, to support sustainable water policies and economy.

Main targets (I)

Contribute to the construction of a common frame and knowledge, and to the development of a common terminology and semantic and help water negotiations through Thematic Workshops.

Provide the intellectual basis and the indicators to perform a benchmarking exercise of Integrated Water Resources Management in the Mediterranean area through the debate and conceptual frame made with the aim of defining indicators that need standards for the measurements of selected parameters common to Mediterranean countries within homogeneous context. These standards will help the implementation of future benchmarking in selected areas.

Main targets (II)

WORKPACKAGES TASKS DISTRIBUTION

HORIZONTAL:

VERTICAL:

WP0: Coordination and Management

WP7:Water participatory Management and Water Governance

WP8:Building Knowledge

WP9:Knowledge Share

WP10:Performance, social and sustainability indicators

WP2: Assessment of Technological Perspectives in Water Management

WP11:Exploratory benchmarking exercise – Recommendations on the application of the WFD

WP3:Rational use of water resources

WP4:Water Value

WP5:Water Policy

WP6:Prevention and Mitigation of water conflicts

WP1: Water Culture

• GOOD LUCK!