The Egyptian-Dutch Advisory Panel on Water Management

From the 4th until the 8th of April 2009, the 43rd Panel Meeting of the Advisory Panel Project (APP) on Water Management will take place in Luxor and Aswan. The Panel Workshop is titled “Governance in Water Management” and within this framework discussions will take place on among other issues participatory water management, water rights, and crisis management.

The Advisory Panel Project (APP) started in 1976 as the Egyptian- Dutch Advisory Panel on Land Drainage. Throughout the years, the Advisory Panel widened its scope from drainage specific issues to water management issues and gradually changed from technical support to policy advice, hence the change of name into Egyptian-Dutch Advisory Panel on Water Management (in short APP, Advisory Panel Project). The current phase of the APP started in January 2005 and runs

through 2009. The main objective of APP is to assist, in its advisory capacity, the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI) in carrying out its responsibilities with regard to managing the water resources of Egypt more efficiently and effectively. 

The work of the Panel is based on information generated from the field in general and from the Dutch-financed projects in particular, as well as on experience from The Netherlands and other regions of the world. APP provides an effective two-way conduit between the field and the policy making level. The Panel acts as an “informal think-tank” on integrated water management issues.

For nearly 30 years now, the Advisory Panel on Water Management has established itself as the main policy think tank on water in Egypt. The Panel has six Egyptian and six Dutch members. The Chairman of the Panel is the Egyptian Minister of Water and Irrigation.