GEO AQUIFER PROJECT BY SSO

The GEO-AQUIFER project capitalizes and generalizes the achievements of the AQUIFER project of the European Space Agency (ESA) on the entire Aquifer System of the Northern Sahara regrouping Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. It fits perfectly into NEPAD's priorities for integrated management of transboundary water resources and in the poverty reduction strategies of the riparian countries of the Northern Sahara Aquifer System (SASS) basin which have placed water resource management as a priority for sustainable development. It will reinforce the appropriation of the achievements by the beneficiaries and actors of the water and consolidate the dialog between the 3 countries on the basis of scientific information, in a perspective of optimization of the options of development by a reduction of the risks of water stress short term. GEO-AQUIFER is the first step in the ongoing mobilization of other financial partners to address the multiple socio-economic aspects related to the rational management of this water resource and to the sustainable development of the area covered by the SASS. Its implementation will enable countries to establish a consultation mechanism to control transboundary risks and manage their shared water resources according to a consensual conceptual scheme.