UN-ESCWA Executive Secretary Bader Omar AlDafa considered today that the Regional Commission region sufferers from a variety of pressures that endanger the sustainability of its water resources. UN-ESCWA has therefore set the management of water resources at the top of its work priority and works to implement several projects to strengthen the good and sustainable management of these resources. AlDafa made these remarks in the first session of the Ministerial Forum on Water that the G77 and China are holding in Oman on 23-25 February. In this context, AlDafa noted that UN-ESCWA was the leading UN agency in the Arab region for the regional coordination mechanism and the thematic working group on climate change. It contributes to several mechanisms that were established to strengthen cooperation among countries in the field of water resources in the Arab region such as the Arab Water Council (AWC), the Arab Ministerial Council on Water Resources and others. The Executive Secretary added that to strengthen cooperation in the field of water supply and sanitation (WSS), the Arab Countries Water Utilities Association (ACWUA) was established to promote South-South cooperation to improve the performance of these countries in WSS. On the other hand, UN-ESCWA hosts the Arab Integrated Water Resources Management Network (AWARENET), which was established in 2002 as an independent regional network of training and research institutions, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), government authorities and experts in the field of water. AWARENET has national chapters in different Arab countries, he said. AlDafa had initiated yesterday a-three day official visit to the Sultanate of Oman, and met with Minister of Economy and Deputy Chairman of the Financial Affairs and Energy Resources Council, Ahmad Abdel Nabi Makki. Discussions extended to a tour d’horizon of UN-ESCWA activities and ways to develop them in the Sultanate. AlDafa listened to Makki’s detailed explanation of the government efforts in sustainable human resources development, the Sultanate’s success stories in and how to spread them out throughout the region. Parties also spoke of conducting training sessions to empower Omani youth and encourage its enrolment in the United Nations system. On the sidelines of the Water Forum, AlDafa also met with Iraqi Minister for Water Resources, Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid who extended to him an invitation to visit Iraq. Both officials discussed cooperation between UN-ESCWA and Iraq. The accompanying delegation with AlDafa includes Anhar Hegazi, Chief of UN-ESCWA Sustainable Development and Productivity Division, Roula Majdalani, Team Leader of Technical Cooperation in UN-ESCWA Programme Planning and Technical Cooperation Division and Frederico Neto, Chief of UN-ESCWA Social Development Division. UN-ESCWA is one of the five UN Regional Commissions. It is comprised of 14 member countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Its objective is to support economic and social cooperation among the countries of the region and promote the development process in order to achieve regional integration.