Welcome to Regional Water Governance Benchmarking Project

Population growth and rising demand for food, housing, and jobs place extreme pressures on the Middle East's already limited water resources. Some countries are attempting to overcome their shortages by tapping deep, nonrenewable groundwater resources or investing in expensive desalination plants. Others try wringing more value out of each drop that is used. Good water management is critical as the costs and value of water continue to rise, and potential disputes over water threaten to exacerbate existing political tensions.

To help meet these challenges, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) developed an innovative regional water strategy termed the Blue Revolution Initiative. Its latest project, was the $1.5 Million Regional Water Governance Benchmarking project (ReWaB), launched in September 2008 for 24 months and was sponsored by USAID's Office of Middle East Programs. International Resources Group (IRG), together with its implementing partners - the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the Institute for Water and Watersheds at Oregon State University (OSU/IWW), Computer Assisted Development Incorporated (CADI), Nile Consultants of Egypt, and ECO Consult of Jordan - built a strategic framework and established indicators and benchmarks to guide and monitor national progress on improving water governance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Six countries were selected for primary focus (Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey Oman and Yemen).

The Water Governance Facility at SIWI assumes responsibility for continuing the water governance benchmarking work in 2012.