The fourth meeting of the SASS III steering committee of the SASS III took place in Tunis on 27-28 May 2013 in the presence of Mr Khatim KHERRAZ, the Executive Secretary of OSS and Ms Kelly WEST (UNEP/GEF).

 The FFEM, a financial partner to the SASS project, was represented by Mr Hervé TREBOSSEN. Representatives of national institutions in charge of water resources management in the three countries concerned with the North-western Sahara Aquifer System (SASS)-ANRH (Algeria), GWA (Libya), and DGRE (Tunisia), were equally present together with delegates from the EMWIS and the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM).

The study of technical and financial reports allowed to edify the participants on the activities’ progress status, assessed as satisfactory.

The meeting included a detailed presentation of the project’s “socio-economic” and “demonstration pilots” components. The technical and financial reports and the 2013-2014 activities program were also adopted by the Steering Committee.

It should be noted that the “demonstration pilots” component reached 70% of its objectives in 2012. The outcome of this component was considered as highly satisfactory for most of the pilots. For instance, the use of solar energy (for drainage water pumping) in the pilot of Kebili (Tunisia) has demonstrated its efficiency and profitability.

A further communication effort will be made in 2013 and until the end of the project with a view of sharing the results of socio-economic surveys and demonstration pilots with all water resources management actors in the North-Western Aquifer System.

The third phase of the SASS project has as final outcomes the elaboration of operational recommendations for the utilization, management, and measurement of water extracted for agricultural purposes, notably in the zones where the water, the soil , or the ecosystem are most vulnerable. Six demonstration pilots were selected to address the diverse problems pertaining to irrigation water sustainable management in the field. The pilots were selected and identified by the institutions in charge of water management in the three SASS countries.