UN: Minister Baraka holds meeting with FMs, senior officials

Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, held several bilateral meetings with foreign ministers and senior officials participating in the United Nations Conference on Water, organized on March 22-24 at the UN headquarters in New York.

In this regard, Baraka met, on Wednesday, with the Minister, President of the Palestinian Water Authority, Mazen Ghunaim, on which occasion he stressed Morocco’s readiness, on the directives of HM King Mohammed VI, to provide constant support to the development of the water sector in Palestine through, in particular, the provision of expertise and capacity building, the Ministry of Equipment and Water said in a statement.

On this occasion, the two ministers agreed to accelerate the implementation of the roadmap for the implementation of the Cooperation Agreement signed in 2015.

The minister also held talks with Israeli Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Ofir Akunis, which focused on how to further develop bilateral cooperation ties, especially in the field of water, through research and innovation, exchange of experience and expertise, and provision of technical assistance, the statement adds.

On Thursday, Baraka met with Joost Oorthuizen, director of “Invest International”, a Dutch public organization in charge of policy implementation on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with whom he discussed Moroccan projects of interest, including desalination plants, road and port infrastructure, as well as green hydrogen, in addition to the modes of financing to be proposed by “Invest International”.

He also held a bilateral meeting with the Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hani Sewilam, during which he reiterated Morocco’s support for the Egyptian AWARe initiative, launched during the COP27 Water Day in November 2022 in Sharm Sheikh and aimed at providing transitional adaptation solutions to the planet and its inhabitants, as well as Morocco’s commitment to support the launch of the proposed action plan over the next seven years to achieve the objectives of this initiative.

The minister also invited his Egyptian counterpart to participate in the 3rd edition of the International Conference on Water and Climate under the theme “Basin Management: key to adaptation and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals”, to be held on July 6 and 7 in Fez.

A bilateral meeting took place on Friday between Baraka and the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, Mark Harbers, during which the two ministers exchanged views on ways to further boost exchanges between the respective ministries.

This meeting was crowned by the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the governments of the Kingdom of Morocco and the Netherlands in the field of water resources, according to the same source.

The minister met with the vice-president of the African Development Bank, in charge of agriculture and social and human development, Beth Dunford, who expressed the Bank’s readiness to support the ministry’s projects in the field of integrated water resources management and desalination plants.

Baraka also met with the ministers in charge of water from the Republic of Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Chad, the communiqué concludes.