gtz Water Sector Program Yemen presents at 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul

From 16-22 March 2009 over 20,000 participants representing governments, UN agencies, intergovernmental and non-governmental agencies, academia, media and civil society groups, met for the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey.

As part of the thematic session on institutional arrangements and regulatory approaches to effective water management, Dr Gerhard Lichtenthaeler (gtz IWRM) was invited by the session’s convening organization IDRC, the International Development Research Centre, to present lessons and good practice from Yemen.

A total of eight panelists presented and discussed case studies from Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America.

In front of a well-attended session, Lichtenthaeler stated that Yemen retains strong social adaptive capacity for localized resource management. While he pointed out, that increasing regional stress on water resources has lead to the introduction of a regulatory framework (Water Law & Bylaws) he also affirmed that the new water legislation of 2002 was drafted to incorporate traditional mechanisms of resource management within the new system. These key messages were followed by a short case study from the extremely water stressed Amran basin in the northern highlands of Yemen. Evidence suggests that this dual tier approach, integrating customary and official law, provides a regulatory and institutional mechanism which ensures transparency and enhances mutual trust and accountability.

Apart from gtz, the Yemeni delegation at the World Water Forum in Istanbul included representatives from NWRA, National Water Resources Management Authority, Ministry of Agriculture, Netherlands Embassy and University of Sana’a’s Water and Environment Centre.


April 2009

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