UAE, Korea boost cooperation in water management

The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MoEI) and Korea’s Ministry of Environment held the 7th meeting for the Joint Operation Committee for Water Resource Cooperation.

The meeting aimed to share latest technologies and experiences in water management and drive cooperation in related fields.

The meeting was co-chaired by Sharif Al Olama, Undersecretary for Energy and Petroleum Affairs at MoEI, and Seunghwan Lee, Director-General for Water Use Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Environment.

Al Olama said, “Water is essential for life, ecosystems, and economies; it is among the first national priorities for many countries, especially because water plays a crucial role in food and energy security. 

Despite being a desert nation with limited natural freshwater resources, the UAE has made significant progress in water management and sustainability. We developed the UAE Water Security Strategy 2036 that aims to ensure sustainable and continuous access to safe and adequate quantities of water.”

He added, “The cooperation between the UAE and Republic of Korea in the field of water resources management is a successful model to achieve global climate targets and meet future sustainable water and energy goals by accelerating innovative technologies R&D, exchange of knowledge, capacity building and best practice benchmarking.”

Seunghwan Lee said, “The Republic of Korea and the UAE signed an MoU in 2015 to foster collaboration in the water industry. Since then, the two countries have hosted six rounds of meetings for the Joint Operation Committee for Water Resource Cooperation to discuss and implement joint initiatives in the water sector.

This year, I look forward to having a productive discussion. I am confident the 7th meeting will serve as an opportunity for discussions in various fields and hope that you find Korea’s water management technologies effective and applicable.”

The meeting featured presentations from the UAE side on future initiatives for the pilot project on smart water network management and UAE surface water, flush flood, and dams’ management.

On the other side, Korean experts presented technologies for floating photovoltaic projects and policies and technologies for an early warning system for urban flooding in Korea.