2- A study entitled "Capitalisation on climate change adaptation practices in the Mediterranean area"  was carried out by for the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), between March 2019 and September 2020. The study is now public and available on the ADEME website. It includes: A portfolio of case studies, available in French and in English (link); a briefing note for decision makers, available in Arabic (link), French (link) and English (link), which includes the main arguments in favor of adaptation; a critical overview report, available in French only (link), which includes the main lessons of the study. Further information on EMWIS website 

3- UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel intervened  at the United Nations Food Systems Pre-Summit, held on 26-28 July at the Headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome, Italy. Under the leadership of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and in partnership with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, this hybrid event aimed to set the scene for the Food Systems Summit in September. During the Pre-Summit, Secretary General Kamel spoke on the panel “Steering the Food System Summit Towards Full Integration of Blue Foods for Health, Wealth and Ecological Recovery”, he highlighted the importance of the Blue Economy — currently at the core of the UfM’s work on Sustainable Development — not only for food systems but also for the protection of ocean resources and economic growth. As the 2030 Agenda deadline approaches, this holistic Euro-Mediterranean approach and the UfM’s Declaration on Blue Economy can become examples for knowledge and sustainable job promotion, political engagement and partnership. The scientific approaches, action coalitions and partnerships debated during this event will ultimately be consolidated into a common vision on how to leverage food systems to deliver progress on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, as well as on people, prosperity, and the planet — which will be further discussed in September’s Summit. Further information on EMWIS website

4- The report, Ebb and Flow, provides the first-ever global assessment of the impact of water on migration. It is based on the analysis of the largest data set on internal migration ever assembled, covering nearly half a billion people from 189 population censuses in 64 countries, and several national and global data sets that have been combined for the first time. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where 60 percent of the population lives in water-stressed areas, the report notes that water is already one of the main vulnerabilities faced by people living in the region, particularly those displaced by conflicts and their host communities. The report finds that water deficits are linked to 10 percent of the increase in total migration within countries between 1970 and 2000. By the end of this century, worsening droughts are projected to affect about 700 million people. These climate shocks will have a disproportionate impact on the developing world, with more than 85 percent of people affected living in low- or middle-income countries. Yet it is often the poor who cannot afford to leave. The report finds that residents of poor countries are four times less likely to move than residents of wealthier countries. Further information on EMWIS website

5- Due to the pollution or over-exploitation of conventional water resources, aggravated by the impacts of climate change, the use of non-conventional water resources has become a necessity, and in some parts of the world even an obligation. At the same time, the mobilization of these resources sometimes requires large volumes of energy, which in the long term can only be renewable. At the International Water Week in Cairo (October 2019, Egypt), the World Water Council (WWC) announced its intention to further explore its intention to further explore the thematic of non-conventional water resources and associated renewable energies through the creation of an international Observatory. Such an Observatory should bring together information and exchange of integration experiences of non-conventional water resources and their energy needs, mainly the use of renewable energies. Further information on EMWIS website

6- In the context of the validation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) by the EU Member States and the initiation of their implementation, Water Europe is now releasing a living position paper on the place of water in the NRRPs and the opportunity to invest in water in order to ensure security and prosperity for the EU Member States. As a follow-up to Water Europe’s position on COVID-19 released last year, Water Europe carried out a mapping exercise to identify water-related investments in each of these plans based on 4 criteria: The consideration of the value of water /The contribution in terms of circularity and the exploitation of the value in water/The availability of investments for Hybrid Grey and Green Infrastructure solutions in the management of water quantity and quality/ The support for the digitalisation of infrastructures (digital water).  Given the advanced state of the process, the objective of this analysis is to identify areas of progress in the implementation of the NRRPs, to bring forward shortcomings that can be addressed through coordination with other funds and to promote the exchange of best practices among Member States. Beyond the specific evaluation of each national case, four areas were generally identified in which additional efforts must be done to achieve a Water-Smart society. Further information on EMWIS website

7- During the IUCN World conservation congress in Marseille, 8 Mediterranean governments and 5 international organizations get together to launch an action plan : “The Mediterranean: a model sea by 2030” (PAMEx) that aims to reverse the dramatic loss of marine biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea by 2030 through concrete and collective actions. This action plan contains 19 concrete actions that aims at collectively preserve 30% of the Mediterranean Sea, end overfishing, limit plastic pollution and develop sustainable maritime transport by 2030. It includes a set of actions for preserving coastal biodiversity and a specific action line on identifying land-based pollution hot spots and implementing solutions to limit them in particular for wastewater treatment. Further information on EMWIS website

8- Water resource management is one of the major issues of the 21st century. In order to address the challenges that impact freshwater ecosystems, the MAVA Foundation, Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation have decided to join forces to create the Donors Initiative for Mediterranean Freshwater Ecosystems (DIMFE); an initiative dedicated to the conservation and restoration of freshwater ecosystems in the Mediterranean: rivers, lakes, marshes, wetlands and peatlands. The first call for projects will be launched end of September on the websites of the three foundations. Further information on EMWIS website

9- Every year, trillions of dollars of agricultural products are traded around the world. Embedded in these products is the water required to grow them. This is known as virtual water, a concept coined by geographer Tony Allan in 1993. The EU-funded CWASI project sought to better understand the global trade in virtual water. “When you eat some bread in Italy, there is a good chance that the wheat has been grown in Moldova, or another country,” notes researcher Francesco Laio. Although trade between two countries may be balanced in economic terms, one country may be effectively exporting its water if it sells crops that need intensive irrigation and imports foods that do not. To map the global trade in virtual water, Laio and his colleagues at the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy collected data on the international trade in food commodities from 1961 to 2016, identifying the origin of 370 different foods. In total, the network covers more than 15 000 international fluxes in commodities. Further information on EMWIS website

10- From 3rd to 11th of September, IUCN’s 1400+ government, civil society and indigenous peoples’ Member organizations gather at the IUCN World Conservation Congress to set priorities and drive conservation and sustainable development action. On this occasion, the World Water Council (WWC), the International Network of Basin Organisations (INBO) which Permanent Secretariat is held by the International Office for Water (OiEau), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), have launched an initiative for signatures of the Declaration “No water security without ecological security / No ecological security without water security”. Every signatory commit to working for “a better integration of ecosystems and biodiversity in water sector activities”.  Further information on EMWIS website

11-  In the last five years, European research and innovation programmes have prioritised the development of online catalogues and tools (handbooks, models, etc.) to facilitate the implementation and monitoring of Nature Based Solutions (NBS). However, only a few catalogues and toolkits are directly related to mainstreaming of NBS for food production (i.e., edible NBS). Therefore, in the framework of EdiCitNet project a multidisciplinary team of researchers lead by UT SEMIDE published a scientific article aiming to present existing NBS tools through the eyes of productive urban landscapes. The team reviewed 32 projects related to NBS and 50 tools were identified and characterised. The main conclusion demonstrates that there is a lack of tools capable of supporting users for planning and implementing edible NBS; calculating the food potential of a city and/or of individual edible NBS, including the needed resources for implementation and operation (water, nutrients, energy); and assessing their urban design value, environmental and socio-economic impacts. Moreover, when they do exist, there is a resistance to share the models and equations behind the tools to allow other projects to reuse or validate them, a fact which is contrary to the open science principles upheld by many public research agencies. Read the full publication here

12- On  8-9 July Sustain-COAST team in Greece (Technical University of Crete)  realized 6 interviews with stakeholders in Malia demosite on groundwater governance and management: banana farmers, potato farmer and hotels. They were conducted based on semi-structured interview approach, a method of research used most often in the social sciences. While a structured interview has a rigorous set of questions which does not allow one to divert, a semi-structured interview is open, allowing new ideas to be brought up during the interview as a result of what the interviewee says. The interviewer in a semi-structured interview generally has a framework of themes to be explored. The Semi-structured interviews held with Sustain-COAST stakeholders revealed their concerns, their experience and perception regarding groundwater resources.  Further information on Sustain-COAST website

14- After two successful editions, the ADEME and its partners launched the third edition of the Mediterranean Climate Change Adaptation Awards. The aim of this contest is to disseminate and promote adaptation actions in rural, urban and/or coastal areas in the Mediterranean region. The applications for the award were received under 3 categories: category 1 ‘resilient facilities and infrastructure’, category 2 ‘preservation of ecosystems and nature-based solutions,’ and category 3 ‘designing, implementing and monitoring public policies.’ Over 50 projects were submitted from 16 Mediterranean countries with more than half from the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries. Among the 3 winners was the H2020-funded project HYDROUSA which won the award for category 2. HYDROUSA proposes circular business models linked to innovative solutions for decentralized water scarce areas in terms of water/wastewater treatment and management, which will close the water loops and will also boost their agricultural and energy profile. Demonstrations are implemented in six Greek Islands, and replications are under development in other Mediterranean sites (Spain, Tunisia, France, Malta, Palestine, Croatia, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, Egypt and Italy). Further information on HYDROUSA project is found on the HYDROUSA website

15- SUPROMED is a PRIMA project developing tools for sustainable agricultural production in water limited environment, with demonstrations in Spain, Tunisia and Lebanon. It's mid-term review meeting took place online on 12 July 2021. The project partners presented the progress towards the project objectives to external reviewers, over the period from October 2019 until March 2021. The Project Officer welcomed the efforts deployed by the Consortium to overcome the impact of Covid-19 on the activities of the project. To know more about SUPROMED project and tool you can visit the project website.

16- Europe experienced its hottest summer on record this year and temperatures in the Mediterranean smashed records by large margins, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said on September 6. Europe was battered by extreme weather events over recent months, including record levels of rain that triggered deadly floods in Germany and Belgium, and heatwaves that contributed to wildfires in the south of the region. The average temperature from the start of June until the end of August was around 0.1 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous hottest summers in 2010 and 2018, a relatively small increase. But it was a whole 1 degree C above the 1991-2020 average, reflecting the longer-term trend of human-caused global warming. The year 2020 was also the hottest on record for Europe overall. The increase in temperatures was not evenly distributed -- as southern Europe broke heat records and the east was warmer than average, northern Europe experienced below-average summer heat (Copernicus' records go back to 1950), but because of the trend of global warming, this summer is likely to also be a record for the whole industrial era. Further information on EMWIS website

17- The COST Action Circular-City (CA17133) will take part of the Ecocity World Summit that will be held on February 2022. Ecocity World Summit  Series is structured to promote the rethinking and rebuilding of our human civilization to exist in balance with living systems. The conference is stewarded by California, USA based nonprofit, Ecocity Builders. Ecocity World Summit is now the longest running conference on sustainable cities. First held in Berkeley California in 1990, it has since been hosted by cities in Australia, Senegal, Brazil, China, India, USA, Turkey, Canada, France, and the UAE. Visit circular-City website to know more

18- Scientists have discovered what they believe is “strong evidence” of a fresh water deposit under the sea floor off the Mediterranean island of Malta. According to Dr. Amir Haroon from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel, the lead author of the study: “Our discovery is based on an oceanographic expedition we conducted in 2018. We used geophysical methods, called reflection seismics, combined with novel electromagnetic techniques to detect these deposits. Our data suggest that the groundwater occurs as an isolated body in limestone formations three kilometers [1.86 miles] from the coast.”Study co-author Aaron Micallef from GEOMAR and the University of Malta spoke about the implications of their findings: “Offshore groundwater may represent a new, unconventional source of drinking water that should be considered in future national water management strategies for the Maltese islands.”  Further information on EMWIS website

19- INRAE and the International Office for Water (OiEau) have launching their new study of climate impacts on French water resources. Named "Explore2" and financed by the French Ministry of Ecological Transition and the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), it follows a previous study, "Explore 2070", initiated by the Ministry between 2010 and 2012. The aim of the "Explore2" project is on one hand, to update the data previously produced based on the latest IPCC publications, but also to support future water management strategies between now and 2024. "The scarcity of this natural resource could lead to conflicts that must be anticipated," warns INRAE in a press release. Further information on EMWIS website

20- The inhabitants of the city of Laâyoune, Western Sahara, will have to wait a few more months before they can benefit from drinking water from the new seawater desalination plant. On August 9th, 2021, the director general of the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (Onee), Abderrahim El Hafidi, announced a new date for the commissioning of the plant. Before the end of 2021, the plant will supply 26,000 m3 of drinking water daily to the population of Laâyoune. The previous deadline was June 2021. To supply the new seawater desalination plant, Onee is drilling coastal wells in Laâyoune, the capital of Western Sahara, a North African territory under Moroccan rule. The desalination plant will be equipped with three storage tanks with a total capacity of 5,500 m3.  Further information on EMWIS website