Managing water resources [Archives:2005/820/Community]
By Aziz Alhadi
For the Yemen Times
The Water and Environment Centre (WEC) of Sana'a University organized a special workshop this week at the Ramada Western Hotel entitled “Needs Assessment for Graduates from WEC's Integrated Water Resource Management MSc and Diploma Program.”
According to WEC Director, Prof. Abdullah Babaqi, the centre seeks to link its curricula and programming to the defined technical and administrative skill needs of the water sector in Yemen, to ensure an adequate supply of graduates in this most crucial sector.
In attendance was the Minister of Water and Environment, Prof. Mohamed Lutf Al-Eryani, who stressed both the necessity and complexity of developing a comprehensive and effective program to integrate the management of water resources.
He explained the “strategic importance” for managers to understand the fact that such a program needs to consider that the management of water resources is directly related to the development of all sectors including education, agriculture, health and other areas.
Integrated management of this resource, then, considers the development impact related to water, according to the minister.
The minister also explained that integrated management of the water resource involves essentially six areas, from scarcity of supply to efficient use of water and services.
The Royal Netherlands Embassy's First Secretary in the Water and Environment Sectors, Dr. Ton Negenman, an expert with past program experience in Yemen also attended the workshop, with his counterpart, Engineer Mohamed Al-Aroosi.
Together, they help direct the substantial amount of Dutch-government funding allocated to help Yemen in the best use of the country's limited water resources.
Also in attendance, on behalf of the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Abdul-Wahab Raweh, was Deputy Minster Dr. Ali Qassem Al-Baseer.
He spoke very highly of the Royal Netherlands Government's assistance in the area of Higher Education, citing that Dutch funding had reached a total of Euros 12.6 million involving a total of eight projects at Yemeni universities around the country.
He also underlined the importance of WEC's focus of designing training for defined needs, as opposed to the general training found in the discipline. Dr. Al-Baseer also noted that the Ministry hopes to see WEC's programs become regional in scope.
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