Egypt Calls for Establishing ‘Global Water Information System’

The Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hany Swailem, at the UN Water Conference (Egyptian Government)
The Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hany Swailem, at the UN Water Conference (Egyptian Government)
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Egypt Calls for Establishing ‘Global Water Information System’

The Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hany Swailem, at the UN Water Conference (Egyptian Government)
The Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hany Swailem, at the UN Water Conference (Egyptian Government)

The Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Hany Swailem, called for establishing a global water information system contributing to climate action and disaster risk reduction.

Speaking at the UN Water Conference, Swailem asserted the need to build on the outputs of the UN Climate Change Summit (COP 27) hosted by Egypt in Sharm el-Sheikh last year.

Swailem was speaking during the closing session of the Water Conference in New York, reviewing the results of the interactive dialogue on "Water for Climate, Resilience, and Environment: Source to Sea, Biodiversity, Climate, Resilience and DRR," which was held under the Egyptian-Japanese joint presidency.

The Egyptian minister discussed the main challenges and measures facing water and climate issues, warning that interactive dialogue concluded with several recommendations following the global water scarcity due to climate change and the resulting negative multidimensional consequences on human needs.

Swailem outlined several recommendations, including maintaining the frameworks for integrated water resources management policies and linking them to other frameworks related to environmental systems and the socioeconomic dimensions associated with them.

He also called for a global water information system contributing to climate action and limiting water resources.

Egypt fears its share of the Nile water will be affected by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that Ethiopia has been building since 2011 on the river's main tributary.

The session also included other recommendations, including mobilizing funds, facilitating their allocation to the water sector and climate-resilient measures, and ensuring cost-effective implementation.

It also asserted the importance of having a mechanism to follow up the actions and commitments resulting from the UN Water Conference as a significant step to achieve tangible progress in water and climate in the coming years.

Meanwhile, the UN Sec-Gen, Antonio Guterres, called for a change of course in managing this valuable common resource amid the global shortage.

Guterres stressed that "water needs to be at the center of the global political agenda" because of its impact on health, sanitation, hygiene, disease prevention, peace, sustainable development, fighting poverty, supporting food systems, and creating jobs and prosperity.

"All of humanity's hopes for the future depend, in some way, on charting a new science-based course to bring the Water Action Agenda to life. They depend on realizing the game-changing, inclusive, and action-oriented commitments that Member States and others made at this Conference,” he said.

Guterres stressed that now is the time to act after he strongly criticized the "excessive consumption" and the resulting climate crisis.

Non-governmental organizations, governments, and the private sector have made about 700 commitments in this unprecedented conference since 1977, including constructing latrines and reviving 300,000 km of deteriorating rivers.

The three-day conference, which hosted ten thousand attendees, pleaded for Guterres to appoint a UN special envoy for water, which the secretary-general says is under consideration.

In 2020, two billion people were still deprived of safe, fresh water, while 3.6 billion lacked "safely managed sanitation," including 494 million defecating in the open air, according to the latest figures collected by the UN Committee on Water Resources.

Climate experts at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believe that about half of the world's population suffers from "severe" water shortages for at least one period of the year.



Hegseth Keeps 2 Aircraft Carriers in Middle East for Another Week for Battle with Yemen’s Houthis

Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is moored near Split, Croatia, Feb. 14, 2022. (AP)
Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is moored near Split, Croatia, Feb. 14, 2022. (AP)
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Hegseth Keeps 2 Aircraft Carriers in Middle East for Another Week for Battle with Yemen’s Houthis

Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is moored near Split, Croatia, Feb. 14, 2022. (AP)
Aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is moored near Split, Croatia, Feb. 14, 2022. (AP)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier to remain in the Middle East for a second time, keeping it there another week so the US can maintain two carrier strike groups in the region to battle Yemen-based Houthi militias, according to a US official.

In late March, Hegseth extended the deployment of the Truman and the warships in its group for a month as part of a campaign to increase strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis. The official said Hegseth signed the latest order Thursday and it is expected the Truman and its strike group warships will head home to Norfolk, Virginia, after the week is up.

Gen. Erik Kurilla, head of US Central Command, requested that the Truman be extended again, according to officials. The San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its strike group arrived in the region a few weeks ago and are operating in the Gulf of Aden. The Truman, along with two destroyers and a cruiser in its strike group, is in the Red Sea.

The officials spoke Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

The US has increased its attacks on the Houthis, launching daily strikes since March 15, when President Donald Trump ordered a new, expanded campaign. He promised to use "overwhelming lethal force" until the Houthis stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a vital trade corridor.

According to Central Command, the US has been waging an "intense and sustained campaign" against the Houthis. In a statement over the weekend, the command said the US has struck more than 1,000 targets in Yemen since Operation Rough Rider began. It hasn't provided details on the targets or how the data is compiled.

It has been rare in recent years for the US to have two aircraft carriers in the Middle East at the same time. Navy leaders have generally been opposed to the idea because it disrupts ship maintenance schedules and delays time at home for sailors strained by the unusually high combat tempo.

If there are no additional extensions and the Truman and its warships leave the region next week, those sailors could be back home by next month.

Last year, the Biden administration ordered the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier to remain in the Red Sea for an extended time as US warships waged the most intense running sea battle since World War II. Prior to that, it had been years since the US had committed that much warship power to the Middle East.

The Houthis had been waging persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group's leadership has described as an effort to end Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

From November 2023 until this January, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

The group paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the US launched a broad assault against the militants in mid-March.