AFED Water Report at AUT Symposium

Beirut, 1/6/2012

AFED's report on Water was presented and discussed in a symposium organized by the American University of Technology (AUT) at the Issam Fares Center in Beirut, in cooperation with the Netherlands Institute. The event was under the auspices of Minister Energy and Water Gebran Bassil, who delivered an opening statement on the water strategy in Lebanon. Among the speakers were Professor Pieter van der Zaag, of the Unesco Water Education Program at Delft University, Dr. Mohamed Hamdi, Regional Water Specialist at UN ESCWA, and Professor Hadi Tabbara, Dean of Sciences at AUT. AFED's Secretary General Najib Saab highlighted the need to invest in water efficiency, including enhanced irrigation methods and re-use of treated wastewater, prior to allocating large sums of money to create other resources. He pointed out that AFED calls for shifting the role of governments from providers to regulators, and stressed the importance of applying metering and fair pricing policies to achieve better efficiency levels.