POLICIES AND TECHNIQUES FOR A SUSTAINABLE PRESENT

Hôtel Africa, Tunis (Tunisia), 1-2-3 October 2014

Water and its Sustainable use will beat the core of an International meetingthat will gather in Tunis International Institutions and experts for a three days debate. In the framework of the EU project IMPROWARE, the International Symposium “Policies and Techniques for a Sustainable Present”will be held on October 1^st-3^rd, in Tunis. The meeting will be a key moment of the Communication Campaign “ANY DROP OF WATER”, launched in Tunis in April 2014, aiming at spreadingthe resultsand broadening the Tunisian participation on the EU project, led by the Italian Ministry for the Environment.

IMPROWARE is part of the Sustainable Water Integrated Management Programme (SWIM[1]), a Regional Technical Assistance Programme launched by the European Commission to contribute to the extensive dissemination and effective implementation of Sustainable Water Management Policies and Practices in the Southern Mediterranean Region. IMPROWARE demonstrates and promotes environmentally sustainable Water Management Policies and Practices in Egypt and Tunisia, challenging the deterioration of aquifers caused by saltwater intrusion due to over-exploitation and Climate Change. The project develops cost-effective, environmental friendly and easily replicable pilot models for Waste Water Treatment and offers insight into innovative methodologies to increasingly integrate the reuse of Waste Water in the planning and development of Water Resources Management Systems.

The Symposium is meant to illustrate the results and lesson learned during the development of the project on the issue of a sustainable management of our vital resource: water. The work is organized as follow:

• October 1^st– A preliminary session dealing with the three main topics covered by the IMPROWARE E-Learning Programme will be managed by CUEIM and Sinergie (Scientific Journal promoted by CUEIM) and held at the presence of researchers and tutors.
• October 2^nd– It is the core day of the Symposium, which will bring together International high-level participants, with the aim of giving a significant contribution to the development of Policy, Regulations and Technical Guidelines on the use of Treated Water, Constructed Wetlands, and the Artificial Aquifer Recharge.Furthermore, two technical sessions will take place in the afternoon.
• October 3^rd– The synopsis of the two technical sessions will prepare the skeleton for a Roundtable including Stakeholders from SWIM Pilot Projects,in a fruitful discussion with the aim of linking possible emerging Policies, in-field Practices and real constraints met by IMPROWARE and SWIM during the implementation of their activities.

 [1]The SWIM Programme, with a total budget of approximately € 22 million, is implemented under the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI), following the Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conferences on Environment (Cairo, 2006) and Water (Dead Sea, 2008) and carries forward the results achieved by two earlier EC regional programmes, SMAP (I, II and III) and MEDA Water.