·        Water Ethics Roundtable, Cairo (Jan-2005)

·        Lecture by Prof.  Terje Tvedt (Jan-2005)

·        Bench Marking & Bench Learning Seminar (Mar-2005).

·        Simulation on Water Negotiation by Dr. Simon Mason jointly with Dr. M. Hefny (Apr-2005)

A meeting took place in Alexandria, organized by Eng. Yasser Seif, the Alexandria Forum on Water Ethics, and with the participation of: H.E. the Governor, the Local People’s Council, Alexandria University, Dr. Ahmad El-Guweily (chairman of the Egyptian Water Partnership), and Dr. Shaden Abd El-Gawad (Chairperson of the NWRC). The meeting was a success as it launched effective dialogue and responded to many queries raised by the participants concerning water for irrigation in the Northern parts of the Delta.

In his keynote speech H.E. the Minister emphasized the fact that the rise and fall of civilizations is dependant on adherence and commitment to certain ethical water values. The rise of ancient Egyptian civilization was due to systemic planning, management, and water engineering, as well as, sticking to the values of cooperation, participation, equity in distribution, solidarity in times of floods, and the “No pollution to the river” principle; to the extent that these values have been considered sacred. H.E. has also pointed out the importance of:

Behavioral and moral approaches in dealing with water use and management.

Ethical principles such as transparency and enhancing dialogue and its tools. This was exemplified in the establishment of Water Users Associations (WUAs) and Water Boards (WBs) within Egypt’s irrigation system.

Water for the poor and for marginalized people is a development priority.

The Director of RCWE, Dr. Magdy Hefny, outlined in his statement the ethical values related to water and their applications. He pointed out that Alexandria has set an excellent example in achieving a great project of the corniche widening on the eve of the reviving of Bibliotheca Alexandrina. This can only be attributed to a high sense of responsibility, commitment, and social mobilization among the private sector, the governorate and the scientific community (Alexandria University). In this context, benchmarking of such success stories could be a lesson to learn from and disseminate. In the experience economy, we need to allow for creating space and time to develop a triangular partnership as shown below, and to create a knowledge based idea that could be translated into a project.

 ·        Seminars for Introducing Activities of RENEW-Egypt (May-2005)

·        Youth Forum on Water Ethics Contest at Bibliotheca Alexandrina (May-2005)

·        Seminar for Introducing the Code of Conduct on Water Ethics (Jun-2005)

·        Workshop on Ground Water Use Ethics (Jul-2005)

·        Simulation on Water Negotiation by Dr. Simon Mason jointly with Dr. M. Hefny (Jul-2005)

·        The Egyptian-Swiss Workshop on Virtual Water is convened (6^th to 8^th of June 2005), with the participation of senior scientists. According to the MoU “Virtual Water” (VW) is one of the priority areas for cooperative research and exchange of information within the strategy of applying Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Egypt.  The Regional Center for Water Ethics was represented by Dr. Magdy Hefny in this workshop.

• The Expert meeting on “Conflict Resolution on Water Resources” training course tailored to the Arab Region: Within the framework of its Natural Sciences Programme and more particularly its programme entitled “From Potential Conflict to Cooperation Potential” (PCCP), UNESCO is organized an expert meeting that was held at Notre-Dame University - Louaizé— Beirut— during the period 13-15 July 2005. This expert meeting entitled “Conflict Resolution on Water Resources Training Tailored to the Arab Region” aimed at reviewing the PCCP course on conflict prevention and cooperation in international water resources, and amending and tailoring the existing training course to the Arab region situation. Dr. Magdy Hefny was a member of the expert panel in this meeting. The meeting aimed at:

Putting UNESCO resources at the disposal of those institutions that are following the same directions in the field of education, peace and cooperation building; (b) Sharing UNESCO’s expertise with such institutions; (c) Joining forces between UNESCO and those institutions in order to optimize one other's efficiency.

• The Workshop on “Water Governance in the Nile Basin Countries”, organized by UNESCO and EPF school of engineering Paris, 25-27 July 2005, within the framework of the NCHP programme. the participants from MWRI included Dr. Abd El-Fattah Metawei-Head of the Nile Water Sector, Dr. Dalal Elnaggar-Director of the Regional Center for Training and Water Studies, and Dr. Magdy Hefny– Director of the RCWE. It was stressed that ethical and cultural content is basic to deal with Water Governance in the Nile Basin. The Workshop also aimed to exchange knowledge by presenting some of the success stories in water governance in Latin America. It is expected that a follow up workshop is to be held at the end of September on “Enhancing Women Role in Water Governance in the Nile Basin Countries”, starting with an Egyptian case. Followed by cases from other Basin Countries.

Yes, ethics here is about reaching win-win agreements. All evidences show that parties to an agreement have to be satisfied with what they gain and to sense that the balance of gains between the them is fair. A win-win agreement is long lasting and has its dynamics to create more externalities of peace and harmony among riparians. Towards this objective, the following workshops took place:

• Beirut, Lebanon (13 - 15 July 2005): An expert meeting for tailoring a special training course on “Conflict Resolution on Water Resources” that was convened. Among Other Things it addressed issues of ethical behavior in water negotiations.

• The Regional Center for Training and Water Studies, 6^th of October City (26 - 30 of June 2005): Another initiative was held by the RCWE by holding a workshop on “International Waters Negotiation and Dispute Resolution”. Three distinguished lecturers facilitated the work of the workshop, namely: Dr. Magdy Hefny—director of the RCWE, and Dr. Simon Mason, and Ms. Judith Niedrberger— ETH, Zurich University. The oral and written evaluation by the participants has confirmed that the Course has been a great success.

Seminars for Introducing Activities of RENEW-Egypt (September-2005)

Workshop on Ground Water Use Ethics (October-2005)

Workshop on  a Code of Conduct for Ethical Water Use in Industry (September 2005)