Commissioned by CEDARE (Centre for Environment & Development for the Arab Region & Europe) on behalf of IFAD (the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development), J. Karanjac prepared in September 1995 a "Regional Programme for the Development & Utilization of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System."

The Regional programme emphasizes the need for an integrated and comprehensive approach that would lead to environmentally sound utilization and management of ground water resources to enable the aquifer-sharing countries to achieve their national goals of food security, improve the living conditions of poor farmers, and guarantee to a certain extent their social and economical well being.

The Regional programme includes the following components:

• Establishment of a national mechanism in each country [Egypt, Libya, The Sudan, and Chad] for the development and monitoring of the aquifer and the rationale use of abstracted water.
• Promotion of regional cooperation among the aquifer-sharing countries through establishing and/or strengthening a regional coordinating mechanism.
• Establishment of project-oriented, national, and regional ground water information systems, with all data and information to be shared by participating countries.
• Desertification control and/or desert reclamation.
• Human power development; and
• Community development.

Contact: karanjac@eunet.yu