Cooperation centred on water, environment imperative for regional stability
Frontline states with Syria should find ways to engage in practical cooperation on essential issues, including water, refugees and social justice to pave the way for a new humanitarian order in the Middle East, experts and policy makers have suggested.
As the current war in Syria prevents the creation of a regional cooperation council on a governmental level, sub-regional committees for cooperation between Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey should be set up until there is a functional state in Syria, they pointed out.
During a roundtable meeting on Thursday, co-convened by the Strategic Foresight Group (SFG) and Majlis El Hassan in cooperation with the Royal Scientific Society and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), participants discussed elements of a new architecture for the Middle East, one that is centred on water and environment in the region’s longer journey to find peace and stability.
With about 40 million hydro-insecure people in the Levant — some of them turning into refugees due to water scarcity and drought — the relationship between water, refugees and the gender factor should be carefully addressed, while a policy response should be designed, the participants agreed.
Read the full article by Hana Namrouqa via The Jordan Times.
[Photo by Naseem Tarawnah | Flickr]
