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In Tunisa, the project on “Farm Management and Groundwater Monitoring for Sustainable Development in the Irrigated Areas of Nadhour, Zaghouan” was completed early November 2009. The team has come up with scenarios of hydro-dynamics of shallow and deep aquifer under different patterns of water management and the changes it entails in order to ensure sustainable agriculture. An economic study pointed out the gross margin, water consumption of different crops throughout the year and surprisingly, the study found that water consuming crops are not necessarily those that have high value. The project informed both farmers and policy makers and the final workshop allowed a broad dissemination of the findings. The study on gender and water management has pointed out key role woman play in irrigation and planning at the farm level. The final workshop was an excellent opportunity to put the project results into the context of water demand management in Tunisia in rural and urban contexts. Tunisia has come a long way in adopting WDM, yet a new generation of challenges has emerged despite the progress in decentralization of water management.

 

In Algeria, Eng. M. Kelkouli project coordinator of the WaDImena funded project stressed that supplement irrigation of cereals with primary treatment of effluent wastewater is not a significant threat to soil and crops and it improves yields in a highly significant way. However, further treatment is needed to mitigate any health hazards for both human and livestock. The socio-economic analysis carried out within the project showed that potential yields and farmers income improvement through supplement irrigation is highly significant and are a good rationale to rehabilitate and upgrade the performance of the treatment plant and therefore water quality. See the presentation and a brief summary of the socio-economic study.

 

News 3 of 12