By IPS Correspondents
FUJAIRAH, Feb 14 2003 (IPS)

Effective collaboration between governments, the private sector and the civil community in the Arabian Gulf can help solve environmental and water problems.

This was recommended by participants in the Third International Approach Symposium on Environment and Water Resources in the Arabian Gulf Region, which was conducted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ajman University of Science and Technology recently.

They considered the lack of active and effective management as the most serious problem which the environment and water resources in the UAE and Gulf region face.

"We must solve this problem immediately through activating effective cooperation among the Gulf countries with the help of the Euro-Arab Research Network," ‘Gulf News’ quoted Professor Waleed Abdul Rahman, head of Water Section at King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals, who presided over the last discussion session of the symposium, as saying.

He pointed out that 2003 is the year of water and all experts on water in the Arab world should be guided by this important theme while setting up several joint research projects supported by international and regional environmental organizations.

"We should also have a unified description of all environment and water problems at regional levels to enable us to realize the seriousness of these problems in different parts of the Arab world and to find suitable solutions," Prof. Abdul Rahman added.

He urged encouragement to participation by several international organizations such as UNESCO, the Economic and Social Committee for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the World Health Organization in supporting environmental research on water and environment.

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