NOGA National Oil & Gas Authority : & MOW sign Memorandum of understanding (MOU) about integrated water resource management in kingdom of Bahrain

In line with the decisions of the Water Resources Council headed by His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa on maximizing the utilization and sustainability of water resources in the Kingdom, His Excellency Sheikh Muhammad bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Minister of Oil, and Eng. Essam bin Abdullah Khalaf, Minister of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning, signed for the first time virtually, a Memorandum of Understanding on Integrated Water Resources Management in the Kingdom of Bahrain aims to promote the optimal use of natural resources, including water resources.

And on this occasion, He Excellency Sheikh Mohamed express his honor about signing the MOU because it will allow to combine the effort and will help to exchange the experience that have been exist in NOGA and MOW-MAUP, and that will contributes to the achievement of the national strategy for integrated water resource management which include the conservation of water resources and ways to maximize their utilization and rationalize their exploitation.

His excellency emphasized that NOGA in a way to expand efforts and partnership for saving the water resources in accordance of his majesty king Hamed bin Isa Al Khalifa vision and guidance, as his majesty always confirm the need for development processes in its various dimension to be compatible with environment variables including water and food security, and the directives of the rational government that seek to achieve the sustainability of natural resources specially the water. His majesty praised the efforts made by The Water Resource Council chaired by His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa vice president the council of ministers in supporting the efforts of ministries and government entities in all program that support enhance the water security in kingdom of Bahrain.
His Excellency the Minister of Oil indicated that the National Oil and Gas Authority, since the launch of its project with the Green Climate Fund in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Program in October 2019, on enhancing climate resilience of the water sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain, has implemented many initiatives and programs aimed at strengthening ways to conserve water. Through the Water Resources Management Unit (WRM) that was established under the umbrella of the National Oil and Gas Authority and under the supervision of the Water Resources Council, as the unit seeks to enhance the sustainability of water resources management.

His Excellency added that among the projects undertaken by the unit is the project of modeling the impacts of climate change on freshwater resources in Bahrain, in addition to benefiting from gray water, and comprehensive auditing of water management and use in Bahrain ,as well as rainwater harvesting. The memorandum of understanding signed today with The Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning comes to complement these efforts and initiatives.

His Excellency the Minister of Oil emphasized that one of the most prominent aspects of the memorandum of understanding is cooperating in refining the skills of human cadres working in the field of water, and developing their capabilities in order to enable them to achieve the desired goals in achieving national aspirations in the field of water conservation.

For his part, His Excellency the Minister of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Eng. Essam bin Abdullah Khalaf welcomed cooperation and partnership with the National Oil and Gas Authority in order to promote the optimal use of natural resources, especially water, stressing that the ministry has an environmental strategic dimension to water conservation and the development of alternative water for the sake of sustainability Ground water as a security and national source for future generations.

His Excellency added that the Ministry has taken radical and important steps in the field of benefiting from wastewater treatment, in implementation of water policies that aim to create a balance between available water and future demand in order to achieve the objectives of Bahrain Economic Vision 2030.

Eng. Khalaf pointed out that the ministry, since 2004, has initiated the delivery of triple treated water to farms in the western region of the Kingdom for reuse in irrigation, and that the construction of the Muharraq sewage treatment plant contributed to treating 85,000 cubic meters per day, in addition to the Ministry's recent operation of the conveyor line. The treated water from the North Sitra station to the Umm Al Hassam area, and the utilization of the treated water produced from the plant, which is estimated at about 14,500 cubic meters per day, in cosmetic agriculture in Manama.

Minister Khalaf stressed that cooperation will be fruitful in the field of utilizing rainwater, gray water, accompanying water, and treated water as well, to be alternative sources by working to provide regulatory requirements in buildings and to study all technical and health aspects to benefit from treated water in the industrial and agricultural fields and aquifer recharge. In addition to cooperation to build capacity and qualify Bahraini cadres that are commensurate with achieving quality in this aspect.

It is worth noting that the MoU aims to cooperate and contribute to building and strengthening the capabilities of institutions and technicians concerned with treated water in the Kingdom of Bahrain, in addition to cooperation in a comprehensive audit on the management and optimal use of water in the agricultural, municipal and industrial sectors, building a database on groundwater, and cooperating in

the field of recharging groundwater with treated water, exchanging experiences, cooperating and coordinating with relevant stakeholders to develop principles and issue a guide for quality standards for treated wastewater and gray water for various uses and sectors, depending on the results of the biological and chemical analyzes carried out by the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning.