Baraka, who leads an important high-level Moroccan delegation to this 9th edition, met with the Palestinian Minister in charge of negotiations on water, Sahddad Attili.

In a statement to the press after this meeting, the Palestinian official said that the exchanges with the Moroccan minister focused on cooperation between Palestine and the Kingdom of Morocco and the fraternal relations between the two countries.

He added that the discussions also focused on ways to assist Palestinians and experts from Palestine in the field of water and sanitation, recalling that Morocco and Palestine have already signed a cooperation agreement in this field.

The meeting was an opportunity to “reiterate the position of Morocco and provide the necessary support to our Palestinian friends, especially in the field of water,” said Baraka for his part, adding that a roadmap has been established that “we will implement and we will strengthen”.

This roadmap aims primarily to bring technical assistance in the field of water desalination but also capacity building, and also to share successful Moroccan experiences with the Palestinians to enable them to access an international right which is the right to water, he stressed.

Baraka also had, on the sidelines of this forum, a meeting with the Ivorian Minister of Hydraulics, Laurent Tchagba, who said that his country wants to benefit from the experience of Morocco in the management of water resources, stressing that the Kingdom “has a history and a civilization that is anchored on water.”

In a statement to the press after the meeting, Tchagba said he wanted to meet Baraka in order to “build a second bridge between Morocco and Côte d’Ivoire,” the first one having been “edified by [Former] President Félix Houphouët-Boigny and late HM Hassan II.”

“Côte d’Ivoire is experiencing a large number of difficulties in the water sector and we know that Morocco is a country with a history and a civilization that is anchored on water,” he said. “We want to benefit from [Morocco’s] experience, know-how and ingenuity in mobilizing resources to invest and develop infrastructure.”

He announced a meeting with Baraka in the coming days in Morocco, which will be an opportunity “for the development of a good and ambitious plan of cooperation.”

The Minister of Equipment and Water also met with the Mauritanian Minister of Hydraulics and Sanitation, Mohamed El Hacen Ould Boukhreîss, who said to have been honored to have held talks with his Moroccan counterpart.

In a similar statement, the Mauritanian minister said that the two parties reviewed bilateral cooperation between Morocco and Mauritania, as well as the excellent relations that bind the two countries and the two peoples.

Ould Boukhreîss said that the talks with Baraka were an opportunity to “exchange around the Moroccan experience in surface management, an experience that we would like to see to what extent it will be applicable in Mauritania taking into account the specificity.”

He also said that the two parties have proceeded to the re-launch of the framework of cooperation and technical assistance between the two countries.

Also as part of the activities of the 9th World Water Forum, opened Monday in Diamniadio, near Dakar by the Senegalese Head of State Macky Sall, the Minister of Equipment and Water had a meeting with the Director General of the Water Authority in Israel, Giora Shaham.

The meeting focused on the state of relations between Morocco and Israel and the prospects for deepening bilateral cooperation in the field of water.

On Monday, at the opening of this 9th World Forum, Nizar Baraka handed over the Trophy of the 7th edition of the Hassan II Great World Water Prize to the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS).

Source: Agency Morocaine De Presse