Summary

News

   - UNESCO Director-General appoints a new Director ad interim of the Division of Water Sciences and Secretary ad interim of IHP
   - UNESCO Cairo Office soon to release Groundwater Operational Management toolkit
   - Water History of our Times republished
   - Working towards water education: the development of informal water education material

Events

Featured International Events
   - 9th International Hydrogeological Congress
   - APAC2011 - The 6th International Conference on Asian and Pacific Coasts
   - IWA Specialty Conference: Water Loss 2012

Did you know?

Facts and figures about the Po River Basin (Italy)

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News

UNESCO Director-General appoints a new Director ad interim of the Division of Water Sciences and Secretary ad interim of IHP

Mr Abdin Mohamed Ali Salih has been appointed by the Director-General as the Director ad interim of the Division of Water Sciences and Secretary ad interim of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP). He will serve in this capacity until the recruitment for the Director and Secretary post is completed.

An academic with several visiting professorships and senior university appointments, Mr Salih has served in various capacities within UNESCO at Headquarters and in the field offices over the past 20 years. After serving as Regional Hydrologist for the Arab States from 1993 to 1999, he moved to headquarters as the Deputy Secretary of IHP where he served from 1999 until his appointment in 2003 as Representative and Director of the UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office. In 2007 he retired from UNESCO. During his years of service Mr Salih led the formulation of various phases of the IHP Programme and significantly contributed to the success in extending its extrabudgetary resources and activities.

Mr Salih returned to UNESCO as the Interim Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Cairo for a short duration in 2008. Later in that year, and while representing Sudan to the 18th session of the IHP Intergovernmental Council, he was elected unanimously as Chairperson of the IHP Intergovernmental Council, representing the Arab States. As customary, he remained as ex officio member of the IHP Bureau during the 19th session of the Council and until August 2011.

Mr Salih, who currently holds a full professorship at the University of Khartoum, has a B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Khartoum, Sudan (1969) and a DIC and Ph.D from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, UK (1972). His fields of interest are hydrology, hydraulics, and water and land resources management under arid conditions.

The Division of Water Sciences and IHP welcome him back with open arms.

Access to Mr Salih's full CV online

UNESCO Cairo Office soon to release Groundwater Operational Management toolkit

Within UNESCO Cairo Office (UCO) efforts to improve the integrated water resources management policies and strategies in the Arab region with a special focus on developing tools and applications for strengthening policies for water management in the Arab region, UCO supported the preparation of the Groundwater Operational Management toolkit. The toolkit focuses on compiling, collecting and documenting field, practical and operational experiences of groundwater management of the aquifer systems in the Arab region. The toolkit, successfully prepared by a group of Arab experts, covers experiences in shallow and deep aquifers besides the existing transboundary aquifers in the Arab region and includes 12 technical modules covering the hydrogeological and groundwater operational management fields, namely: groundwater origin, occurrence and flow; planning for the management of groundwater development, investigations for managing groundwater development, groundwater potential, wells and well fields design; implementation, development of wells; monitoring and evaluation systems, groundwater and water well pollution, management of groundwater development; institutional and legal approaches for managing groundwater development; and awareness for appropriate management of groundwater development.

Currently, UCO is working on developing multimedia CD/DVD and website for the toolkit on Groundwater Operational Management (to be finalized by end of Oct. 2011).

UNESCO Cairo Office

Water History of our Times republished

The revised version of Water History of our Times was published end of June 2011 by UNESCO-IHP. The essay was written by Professor Fekri Hassan, the Egyptian archaeologist and historian. Among many other sources, it draws on his extensive research and on articles of the first Volume of the History of Water and Civilization series, "Water History and Humanity" (forthcoming).

The books purpose is to foster a better understanding of the historical development, cultural diversity and ethics of freshwater use and management, and its relationship to issues of equity, cooperation and social cohesion, which is considered a prerequisite for the equitable and peaceful sharing of water resources.

Download the essay

Working towards water education: the development of informal water education material

For enhancing school students' awareness towards rational use, conservation and protection of water resources in the Arab region, the UNESCO Cairo Office (UCO) supported the preparation of informal water education material for school students addressing different target groups. The developed material covered the upper elementary, intermediate and secondary school age groups promoting the concept of sustainable development.

• The developed educational content uses different pedagogical styles including case studies, short novels, attractive narrative and dialogues. The material is to be used by teachers, supervisors, facilitators and trainees working with different age groups focusing on exchanging knowledge and experiences of water best practices and water ethics among students.
• Currently, the UCO is also working on the development of 2-D 'Still Image Cartoons' based on the developed short novels mentioned above. Such cartoons will be converted to 'e-learning style' using still images or illustrations to raise the levels of "water ethics literacy" amongst school students and to reach wider student/teacher audiences over the Internet.
• An interactive participatory approach is adopted within the development of this project involving some Egyptian school students. This participatory approach involved a number of school students with age range between 8-14 years in addition to their parents whose feedback was extremely valuable for the refinement of the project.

The project will be completed by October 2011.

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Events

Featured International Events

9th International Hydrogeological Congress
5-8 October 2011: Kalavrita, Greece

APAC2011 - The 6th International Conference on Asian and Pacific Coasts
14-16 December 2011: Hong Kong, China

IWA Specialty Conference: Water Loss 2012
26-29 February 2012: Manila, Philippines

Access a complete list of water events around the world

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Did you know...? Facts and figures about the Po River Basin (Italy)

• The Po River basin generates nearly 40% of the Italian national GDP through intensive industry and other economic activities.
• The Po River basin extends from the Alps in the west to the Adriatic Sea in the east and covers an area of 74,000 km2. While 5% of the basin lies in Switzerland and France, most of it is situated in northern Italy. This is where the basin is the largest, its main channel the longest (650 km), and its discharge the biggest.
• The Po basin is home to some 16 million people (2001), and extends over 24% of Italy’s territory. The regions of Piedmont, Aosta Valley, Liguria, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany lie partially or completely within it, as does the Autonomous Province of Trento.
• Average precipitation varies from a maximum of 2,000 mm in the Alpine range to slightly less than 700 mm in the eastern plains, with an annual average of 1,100 mm.
• Meteorological records indicate that the total number of rainy days in Italy decreased by 14% from 1951 to 1996. The decrease was most pronounced in winter. The amount of rainfall also declined, especially in central and southern Italy. In addition, during the same period, persistent droughts grew more frequent. Similar trends have been observed in the Po River basin. Average annual rainfall has diminished there by 20% since 1975, and the average yearly discharge at Pontelagoscuro, near the lower end of the river, has fallen by between 20% and 25%.
• The amount of available freshwater resources in the Po River basin is estimated at 77.7 billion m3.
• Agriculture in the Po River basin is highly developed, accounting for more than half of the land use in the basin. In fact, at 30,000 km2 it is the largest cultivated area in Italy, and accounts for 36% of the country’s agricultural production. Accordingly, agriculture has the highest water demand of any sector in the basin, withdrawing nearly 17 billion m3 per year. About 11,000 km2 of the cultivated area is irrigated, almost exclusively (87%) from surface watercourses.
• The Po River basin is also urbanized, and home to 28% of Italy’s population. Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia Romagna are the most populated regions and have a concentration of economic activities.

The section "Did You Know…?" is taken from the 3rd World Water Development Report "Water in a Changing World".

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