Water Resources Department

 Tasks:

• Supporting the efforts exerted by the Arab countries to achieve water and food security and bridge the existing food gap in the Arab Region.
• Assisting the Arab countries in their efforts to protect their shared water resources rights.
• Supporting the Arab efforts to ensure the water rights and to help protecting these rights into coming generations.
• Providing appropriate databases about available water resources (conventional and non-conventional water resources) at the basin, national, and regional levels.
• Establishing modern techniques which help in evaluation,
• development and management of the water resources. This is achieving the sustainable development and protecting water from depletion and pollution.

• Improving the capacities of institution related to water sector and enhancing the capability of the technical cadres working in this field.

 Programs:

The Water Resources Department carries out its activities via the following programs:

 Program of Integrated Water Resources Management:

This program aims to help achieving the optimum exploitation of the available water resources and rationalize their uses in a way that protects them from pollution and depletion. It also aims to draw up water policies to ensure the sound management of the water resources.This program includes all the activities related to applying mathematical models for the surface water and groundwater resources management, building the Decision Support Systems and studying the movement of pollutants in the surface water and groundwater.

It also includes the studies related to the estimation of the actual evapotranspiration via the use of modem techniques to help rationalize the use of irrigation water, in addition to studies on the fragile ecological systems such as the oasis areas.

Program of Water Resources Development:

 This program aims to carry out research and studies to evaluate the available water resources and protect them from deterioration. It also aims to explore new water resources and develop these resources through the use of appropriate techniques such as rainwater harvesting, artificial recharging, and water erosion control.

The water program also includes all the activities related to monitoring and evaluation of water resources and climate in the Arab world through providing integrated water databases about water resources and their uses.

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Program of Water Environment Protection:
This program aims to conserve the quality of the water resources and protect these resources from pollution and depletion. It also aims to provide clean water for different uses. This program includes also all the activities related to groundwater vulnerability mapping.

 

Training Activities:

• This department organizes training courses and workshops on mathematical modeling of the groundwater and surface water, rainwater harvesting, water databases and their linkage with the geographic information system, protection of the groundwater and the isotopic and hydro-chemical studies. These courses and workshops
  

  

  help to transfer knowledge and technology into the Arab countries.

• The Department organizes training courses for trainees from inside or outside the Arab world at the request of Arab or international organizations such as the training courses which were organized for the English-speaking African countries via funding provided by the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and the training courses organized for cadres from the Saudi Geological Survey.

Examples of the held training courses and workshops are:

• Groundwater management using mathematical modeling.
• Water databases and their linkage with the geographic information system.
• Groundwater vulnerability mapping.
• Integrated management of the water basins.
• Water monitoring networks.
• Rainwater harvesting.
• Use of mathematical modeling for estimating surface runoff.
• Use of environmental isotopes in water studies.
• Methodologies of protecting groundwater from pollution.
• The Decision Support Systems for water resources management.
• Water policies.