Egypt reaffirms support to Arab efforts to address challenges

CAIRO, Jan 27 (KUNA) -- Egypt's Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Housam Mughazi on Wednesday reiterated his country's support to Arab efforts to counter challenges facing the "water file" amid rising population and growing need for more development.
As head of the Executive Bureau of the Arab Ministerial Council for Water, Egypt will work hard to serve the Arab goals in a field that needs further work on the ground, Mughazi told the bureau's 11th session in Cairo.
He pointed to the fact that most of the Arab water resources come from outside Arab World, hoping that today's session will produce "fruitful" recommendations to be submitted to the Ministerial Council's meeting in Morocco, May 2016.
The Kuwaiti delegation to the session is led by Undersecretary of the Electricity and Water Ministry Engineer Mohammad Bushehri.
For his part, Iraq's Minister of Water Resources Mohsen Al-Shemmari, warned against waves of terrorism targeting all aspects of life in Iraq. He urged more attention to the issue to push it to the international scene.
He called members of the Executive Bureau to join the international convention on cross-border rivers and stressed the significant role of the private sector for managing the water file.
The agenda of today's meeting comprises a host of topics on activating the Arab Water Security Strategy and drawing up an executive plan for it, to be submitted to the Arab summit in Morocco in march 2016.
The Arab ministers will also address means to counter Israel's stealing of water in the occupied Arab territories, besides a host of major relevant issues.
The Executive Bureau, chaired by Egypt, includes Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Sudan, Morocco, Palestine, and Mauritania. (end) mfm.rg.msa