I am pleased to rise today to inform my Honourable colleagues that two managers from the Water Resources Management Division have been selected by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to lead a two-year Science for Peace project.

Mr. Haseen Khan and Dr. Amir Ali Khan, who recently participated in a European Space Agency TIGER Project in Egypt, have been appointed the NATO country project director and co-director, to implement an environmental security and water resources management system using real time water quality warning and communication on the River Nile in Egypt.

The Egyptian project director is Dr. Shaden Abdel-Gawad, a graduate from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and president of the National Water Research Center of the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation.

Real time water quality monitoring is state-of-the-art technology used to provide an early warning of adverse water quality incidents and is an integral part of proactive water resources management in this province. My department was the first in the country to implement a real time water quality monitoring and reporting network.

Our expertise was recognized nationally when the federal government implemented a national network based on our network, and now we have been selected by NATO to implement an index network in Egypt. Our selection to lead this NATO project is international recognition of the strong technical expertise in my department and is another illustration of this government�s success in using innovative technologies.

This project will give Egypt the ability to proactively identify and respond to both security and water quality management issues. It has several implications for trans-boundary water resources management in Africa and will potentially enable Egypt to approach the World Bank for funding of a national network.

Over the next two years, delegations of young water scientists from Egypt will visit my department to undertake training on various aspects of water resources monitoring and reporting. Mr. Haseen Khan and Dr. Amir Ali Khan will travel to Egypt to provide training and to set-up the water quality warning system.

This is a water resources capacity building project that will use our experience and expertise to develop a capacity in Egypt to monitor their strategic water bodies on a real time basis against any natural or anthropogenic threats. It will enable them to take immediate mitigative measures, and to report the suitability of water for various uses such as drinking, irrigation, livestock, aquatic life and recreational use.

I am pleased to say this is the first time in the history of the Nile River system that a real time water monitoring network and reporting system will be set up to ensure the integrity of Nile River system under the leadership of NATO.

I am confident this project will further add to the international recognition that our province and department has earned in water resources management.

2007 05 29                                               1:50 p.m.