Regional Consultation Meeting

Regional Consultation Meeting On Climate Change Impact in the Arab Region: Sea Level Rise, Costal Erosion and Human Development

Speech by Prof. Dr. Shaden Abdel-Gawad President, NWRC

20 September 2010 Cairo, Egypt

Mr. James Rawley, Resident UNDP Representative for Egypt

Ms. Fatma Al-Mallah, League of Arab States

Mr. Adel Abdellatif, UNDP – RBAS Chief of Regional Program Division

Respected guests and colleagues,

On behalf of the National Water Research Center of the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and on my behalf, it is indeed my honor and great pleasure as a co-organizer of this event to extend a warm welcome to you all on this occasion of the Regional Consultation meeting on Climate Change Impact in the Arab Region: Sea Level Rise, Coastal Erosion and Human Development.

1/8 Ladies and Gentlemen,

We live in a fast-changing world, sometimes all too sharply, and water is therefore impacted adversely by these changes. Climate change is to a great extent a water change. Water is the primary medium through which climate change impacts will be felt by humans and the environment.

I would like to stress an important issue here, though the sea level rise of few centimeters and the storm surges will be raised by few 10s of centimeters that will eventually mean more land to be inundated, but Climatic Changes will render all our coastal structure redundant or obsolete.

Mitigation within the Arab Region seems to be insignificant comparing with the Global problem as all the Arab Countries only contribute a minor percentage of the problem. What is important is our adaptation to the threat we are facing.

We are here today, as Arab Countries, to discuss our strategy towards Climatic Changes and the expected Sea Level Rise. We have valuable

2/8 resources in our coastal zones to protect, the majority of our trade is through the coastal zone and at least 50 % of our population reside within the coastline with their socio-economic interest. We have to think and plan for the future. What will happen if we are forced to move only few tens or hundreds of meters inland?

We have already invested billions and billions of dollars to develop our facilities in the coastal areas. Are we going to leave it, protect it or adapt with the existing situation? A critical decision we need to think about it on the Global, Regional and National levels.

The problems that we are facing are enormous. We are the victim of others actions. We need to join our effort, confront the problems as a Region and identify solutions that can match our Region capabilities.

This means that we as individual countries and a Region need to have a Strategy to work together in order to define the threat we are imposed to

3/8 identify, our regional and national priorities, define the resources we need to deploy and most important to find ways and means to insure full cooperation and coordination of efforts. We should all seek to place climate change at the heart of water resources management policy.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We at the NWRC has defined the main problems facing the coastal zones of Egypt in reference to climate changes.

 Insufficient data and information.  Ambiguity of responsibilities.  Poor public participation in decision making processes.  In-adequate cooperation and coordination between stakeholders.  Conflicts between resources uses.  Loss of properties due to land and shoreline erosion,  Sea level rise impacts on;

4/8 Groundwater quality and quantity,

Patterns of waves and currents

Erosion and accretion systems due to currents, waves, and wind actions

Lakes ecosystems

Water resources and drainage systems

Fisheries due to changes expected in current patterns

Infrastructures and natural resources of the coastal zone of the Nile Delta

To deal with these aspects, NWRC has permanent research stations as well as observation and monitoring systems along the coastline of Egypt. For example;

 NWRC has groundwater observation wells to monitor sea water intrusion due to SLR  Water quality program for drainage and irrigation water

5/8  Coastal field stations to monitor coastal hydrodynamics and morphology  Sea level rise tide gages  Hydrological measurements instrumentations  The best physical models in the region  Numerical models for all water and coastal related research aspects

The Center has two of its 12 research institutes focus their activities on climate change. The Coastal Research Institute (CoRI) to study the dynamics of Egyptian shores and to find out efficient and cost- effective control methods to protect the densely populated area in the Nile Delta with its valuable agricultural land, industrial establishments and infrastructures from erosion problems and climate changes impacts.

The Environment and Climate Change Research Institute (ECRI) to study the environmental impacts of climate changes on water resources of Egypt.

6/8 The center runs nowadays two important studies to deal and adapt with the climate changes impacts on the Nile Delta coastal zones from Port Said at the east to Alexandria at the west.

The most important aspects in those two studies are the participatory approaches and socio- economic dimensions that provide added values to the scientific approach.

Furthermore, NWRC was chosen to address and study the crisis of climate changes and their impacts on the coastal zones of Egypt in the Second National Communication report of Egypt submitted to the UNFCCC.

Dear Colleagues,

I hope that by the end of this meeting we can arrive to a mode of cooperation among ourselves to establish a climate change forum or work programme that will better identify the common threat, and the key persons that will act in this work programme. The main functions of the proposed work programme are:

7/8  To contribute to "bridging water & climate agendas".  To facilitate the integration of climate change into water management strategies.  To organize capacity building and knowledge sharing workshops on building resilience to CC.  To initiate collaborative research on CC impacts on future water availability and on coastal zones.  To enhance data collection and provision of information on projected CC impacts through the water cycle.

Finally I wish you a fruitful meeting and I hope that you will enjoy your stay in Egypt.