Integrated Water Resources Management Plan Orontes Basin - Syria

Client: RIZA (Netherlands Fund)
Executing Agent: General Council for Water Resources – Orontes Water River Basin Section
Location: Orontes Basin (Over three governorates in Syria)

Project Description
Work conducted jointly with DHV Water of The Netherlands. The objective of the project is to assist a core group of the Stakeholders in drafting an Integrated Water Resources Management Plan for the Orontes Basin. Our task consisted of strengthening the technical and managerial capacities of the stakeholders in integrated water resources management. It included: Capacity Building of al the stakeholders by providing a series of one-week training courses on several subjects which includes: Learning IWRM; Groundwater modeling (Flow and contaminant transport); Estimation of Environmental Base flow for rivers, Water Economics.

Scope of Work
Providing Technical assistant for:
• An assessment of the water availability in the Orontes Basin, both surface water and groundwater.
• An environmental flow analysis (EFA) of the River and its main tributaries.
• An actualized summary of Water Demands in the river for the year 2005, 2020, and 2040, including possible inter basin transfer and under various scenarios.
• An integrated Water Balance of the Orontes Basin, including water availability and water demands for 2005, 2020, 2040.
• Database / GIS of collected information on water resources, water demand and pollution.
• A decision Support System Consisting of a catchment water distribution tool linked to the GIS database and to the available management and simulation models, such as the Water Allocation System and the Dynamic Orontes Basin Groundwater Model.
• An assessment of agricultural, urban, and industrial Pollution Sources (Wastewater, fertilizers, pesticides, and solid waste), and their impact on groundwater and surface water
• An assessment of wastewater Reuse Potentials
• Development of an economic model for water allocation optimization using (WAS model).