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ANE Regional Activities
>> Regional Overview >> ANE Regional Activities Overview ACTIVITY DATA SHEET
PROGRAM: Asia and the Near East Regional
TITLE AND NUMBER: Fostering Resolution of Water Resources Disputes, 498-002
STATUS: Continuing.
PLANNED FY 2001 OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: None.
PROPOSED FY 2002 OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: None.
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1995 ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY 2002Summary: In the Middle East-the driest region in the world-water demand is growing fast due to population growth, agricultural use, and increasing urbanization and industrialization. This is reducing water availability to crisis levels. Increasing scarcity may intensify water conflicts among competing uses and among countries, leading to instability and conflict and posing serious and direct threats to U.S. national interests in the region.
The ANE Bureau's Fostering Resolution of Water Resources Disputes (FORWARD) activity helps governments and key stakeholders in the Middle East to reach agreement on equitable and sustainable strategies, policies, and plans for managing scarce water resources. The absence of effective mechanisms to resolve water disputes collaboratively is a key reason for many environmental, economic, social and political problems in the Middle East. FORWARD departs from traditional quality- or quantity-oriented water resource projects by providing a mechanism for resolving water disputes between parties with divergent or competing interests, addressing long-standing national and local domestic water issues.
Key Results: In the Middle East, FORWARD has enabled USAID field missions to engage the highest levels of host country governments directly on the most critical water policy and technical issues that they face. Notable achievements include costing water and wastewater services for tariff restructuring in Egypt, increased privatization and decentralization in the water sector in Jordan, improved aquifer management in Gaza, and support for reconstruction in Lebanon.
Performance and Prospects: FORWARD is entering a period of transformation. As it begins its final year of operation, FORWARD has active programs in Egypt, Jordan, West Bank/Gaza, Lebanon, and Morocco. They cover most of the major policy and technical issues facing the water sector in the Middle East, including water pricing and tariff restructuring, watershed management, private sector participation, decentralization, stakeholder participation, aquifer management, and water quality degradation.
In Jordan, FORWARD completed the first phase of a strategic planning program for the Jordan Valley Authority (JVA). JVA officials worked closely across divisions with each other for the first time, and with FORWARD through technical working groups that conducted water resources, management, and stakeholder assessments and developed a final volume on strategic issues facing the agency. This report forms the basis for the second phase of the program, the development of the strategy. More importantly, it reflects a broad-based participation from JVA staff, which is unique in JVA's history. The World Bank has accepted the effort as the basis for its own much larger program to develop action plans and projects for the valley.
FORWARD continues to implement the Financial Accounting Systems Program in JVA, which is shifting the authority from a cash-based to an accrual-based accounting system. This shift will dramatically affect how JVA conducts it daily basis and is a critical, first step in reaching commercialization targets. During the period, FORWARD worked with JVA in mapping its business and computer processes. These assessments were used to prepare a redesign of JVA systems. Through leadership and change management training for senior JVA officials and intensive accounting and computer training for hundreds of JVA staff, the authority is well placed for change. FORWARD is now installing Oracle Financials, the software package that will support the transition.
FORWARD has worked closely with senior management of JVA and the Ministry of Water and irrigation to develop options for irrigation water tariff increases then assist the ministry in choosing which scenario to present. The Cabinet approved the proposal, which is now in Parliament for final approval. This intervention grew directly out of FORWARD's development of a cost-tariff model for irrigation water.
In Egypt, FORWARD is conducting detailed financial analysis of six water authorities as part of its debt restructuring to address the crippling financial burden placed on water authorities when they receive loans for infrastructure development from the Ministry of Finance. FORWARD works with an oversight committee whose members represent every major stakeholder in the water sector. The final legal document, to be developed in the coming months, will require government and presidential approval.
In Morocco, FORWARD conducted a feasibility study on water resources data harmonization in the Souss-Massa Basin, the site of the mission's major new integrated river basin management program. This study examined the existing water resources databases of the major different regional entities and assessed the prospects for data sharing. The work was very well received by the government and mission and was the basis for a major new program on data harmonization. The new program has begun and already provides concrete evidence of interagency collaboration and sets the stage for the full mission program on river basin management.
FORWARD developed a framework for a water conflict prevention program for South Lebanon, in the formerly occupied security zone along the Israeli border. The proposed program's several components include an assessment of transboundary issues, water resources data and private sector participation initiatives, and collaborative planning and conflict prevention initiatives in villages and village clusters.
In 2000, FORWARD became involved in transboundary water issues. It held a well-received workshop for USAID staff from Asia and Near East missions on building public-private partnerships in the water sector, and is reviewing private sector development infrastructure funds, and their appropriateness for USAID investment in the follow-on activity.
More recently, FORWARD is working with the World Bank's Nile Basin Initiative, bringing together the ten riparian states to jointly plan projects along the run of the river. FORWARD will conduct a negotiations skills training program for riparians, and will carry out a major modeling effort on Lake Victoria to serve as the basis for renegotiating a treaty between Uganda and Egypt governing releases from Owen Falls Dam. Through these and other activities, FORWARD provides the only mediation and collaborative planning expertise to the initiative.
Possible Adjustments to Plans: The FORWARD contract was extended one year at no cost to permit the orderly conclusion of ongoing activities; it is now scheduled to terminate on March 31, 2002. Starting in FY 2002, funds for regional water resource management activities will be obligated and activities will be reported under the new regional strategic objective "Environment Managed for Prosperity and Sustainability" (498-024).
Other Donor Programs: Given the urgency of addressing the Middle East's water needs, other donors such as the World Bank, European Investment Bank, Japan, France, and Germany furnish significant levels of assistance to improve national and regional water sector development, planning and management. This support will help improve and upgrade irrigation networks, rehabilitate and expand water distribution networks, and improve and expand collection, treatment, and disposal of wastewater.
FORWARD takes a different approach by recognizing that water problems often involve legitimate disputes between parties with divergent or competing interests, and helping them to reach agreement on important water issues through a mixture of mediation and technical support to stakeholders, and strengthens institutional capacity for collaborative problem-solving and consensus building. These efforts complement the work of other donors.
Principal Contractors, Grantees, or Agencies: The principal contractor is Development Alternatives, Inc.
Selected Performance Measures:
Baseline(2000) Target(FY 2001) Target(FY 2002) Number of agreements on track for implementation 7 7 8 Number of agreements reached 8 8 9 Number of host country institutions employing collaborative problem solving in their operations 3 4 5 Number of host country nationals serving as co-mediators 12 15 18 U.S. Financing
(In thousands of dollars)
Obligations Expenditures Unliquidated Through September 30, 1999 3,866 DA 1,921 DA 1,945 DA 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 DFA 0 DFA 0 DFA Fiscal Year 2000 540 DA 620 DA 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 DFA 0 DFA Through September 30, 2000 4,406 DA 2,541 DA 1,865 DA 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 DFA 0 DFA 0 DFA Prior Year Unobligated Funds 300 DA 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 DFA Planned Fiscal Year 2001 NOA 0 DA 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 DFA Total Planned Fiscal Year 2001 300 DA 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 DFA Future Obligations Est. Total Cost Proposed Fiscal Year 2002 NOA 0 DA 0 DA 4,706 DA 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 CSD 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 ESF 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 SEED 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 FSA 0 DFA 0 DFA 0 DFA
The FY 2001 and future activities and funding related to this SO have been moved to SO 498-024.
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Last Updated on: May 29, 2002 |
