Arab Countries need $200 billion in water-related infrastructure

SPA - To date, IDB has provided more than $2.5 billion of assistance in the water sector to its 56 member countries. This financing, which
represents around 15 percent of its aggregate project financing
commitments, targeted some 250 water-related projects worth in excess
of $10 billion. Around $1.5 billion of this assistance targeted the
Arab region, including $1.1 billion for water supply and sanitation
projects.

IDB is equally active on the institutional capacity
building front, for example, in its capacity as a founding member of
the Cairo-based Arab Water Council, a regional water policy
think-tank, and the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Water Academy, a regional
capacity building programme hosted by IDB's Dubai-based International
Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) in partnership with the Abu
Dhabi Environment Agency.

Meanwhile, Dr Ali and Prince Willem-Alexander, the Prince of Orange
and Crown Prince of the Netherlands, in his capacity as chairperson
of UNSGAB signed recently a cooperation agreement between IDB and
UNSGAB, which will focus primarily on financing, sanitation services,
water operators partnerships and integrated water resources
management.