Europe-MENA Urban Network. EUROMENA - MEDCITIES partnership possibilities. Amman, 2-4 July 2005 by Joan Parpal Medcities

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1 Europe-MENA Urban Network Preventing Major Urban Risks EUROMENA - MEDCITIES partnership possibilities Amman, 2-4 July 2005 by Joan Parpal Medcities

2 Risks identification in towns members The 12 environment audits ( Tangiers, Tetuan, Oran, Sousse, Gaza, Haifa, Tripoli, El Mina, Silifke, Limassol, Larnaka, and Tirana), the Sustainable Development Strategy of Sfax and the normal networking have identified urban risks without making specific risk assessments.

3 Main fields on Medcities towns Floods Aquifers conservation Technical risks Water transmission diseases Unstable building

4 Urban Floods Our priority is urban flood prevention We propose co-operation actions between Medcities towns for controlling an urban dynamic that increases the risk of flood day by day. It is the upstream impermeabilitation produced by the urban extension works. This normal activity of urban metabolism increases the rainfall peak downstream, saturate the drainage system, increasing flood risks.

5 Urban flood prevention pilot project Larnaka municipality, Medcities and GWP Med/Mio are building a pilot project for introducing sustainable drainage policies and actions, including by-laws on run-off conservation for new constructions, in a catchment run-off area that has a planned urban extension and a coastal downtown area that has nowadays drainage problems We have received a preliminary support from the Cyprus Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment. We foreseen a workshop in Larnaka on defining the policies and actions to be made on first term Medcities thinks that the issue could be also a good subject for a Mediterranean co-operation project.

6 Urban aquifers conservation A general unsustainable dynamic of the Medcities towns is the existence of urban and peri-urban aquifers overused, with sea intrusion and polluted by urban activities. This is a general problem in Mediterranean coastal towns. The urban draughts risk prevention needs the aquifer conservation. We make a call to EuroMena network to include the subject in its priorities.

7 Possible initiatives A good practice in some Countries is the existence of a public- private partnership institution between Government, Municipalities and users of the aquifer that would impulse conservation policies, report on permits of water extraction and actions that can damage the aquifer and in some cases manages conservation works. I propose to EuroMena network a joint initiative in a Coastal Medcities town after a consultation of Governmental water authorities interest to advance with this perspective.

8 Technical risks Medcities has worked on petrochemical industry urban risk prevention in Larnaka and Haifa. Other kind of technical risks are present in many Medcities towns. I propose a joint action EuroMena- Medcities to make a technical risks assessment in two or three towns with and the elaboration of a policy and action plan on risk control and prevention with active participation of national and local authorities and the private sector.

9 Water transmission diseases In too many towns the drinking water quality control is only made at drinking water potabilisation plant level or at distribution tanks, the distribution network has intrusion of pollutants and the water quality is not controlled at users level. The risk of water transmission diseases is high. I would propose to create a small network of towns interested in controlling the drinking water quality at users level with the objective of exchange experiences and facilitating the creation of municipal services of biological water quality control including a small laboratory. In some cases the local Universities could also joint the initiative.

10 Unstable buildings The spontaneous construction in slopes or flooding areas with insufficient foundations has created in many cases areas with a high risk of building collapses. We all know serious accidents produced for this reason. I would propose a assessment in both networks towns in order to valorise the interest for a specific small network to co-operate to solve this problem not only on prevention policies implementation but also on planning the upgrading of affected areas.

11 Final remarks Risk prevention is a public activity to be reinforced in the majority of our towns. The joint actions of municipal and national authorities on assessment, policies definition and its implementation is almost always indispensable. Public-private participation processes are very efficient in many cases. The problems are very similar all over the Region. So the exchange of experiences between towns is a interesting tool and networks as EuroMena and Medcities can be useful. We have exposed some fields of urban risks that are relevant according to our networking experience. Nevertheless can be many other risk fields to work together.