The Environmental and Biological Studies Centre at the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) has conducted the mid-term examination for the 10th cohort of its Professional Diploma programme in Integrated Water Resources Management, delivered in partnership with the United Nations Educational Centre for Water Resources Management in the Arab Region for the 2025/2026 academic year.

This cohort comprises 20 young professionals from the water sector across the Arab region representing the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Sultanate of Oman, the Republic of the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, the State of Palestine, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of Kuwait, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen. Following their examinations, participants presented the progress of their research projects to academic supervisors in preparation for final submission in October.

Diploma students are developing research projects that address the principal challenges in their water-management work. They tackle real-world problems in integrated water-resources management by considering the intersecting social, economic and environmental dimensions, reflecting the programme’s core aim of moving beyond a purely technical approach.

Prof. Waleed Zubari, Professor of Water Resources and Programme Coordinator, said the research topics for this cohort are wide-ranging and of critical importance to the region. They include developing a sanitation-sector safety plan in Sudan, creating sanitation-sector databases to support decision-making in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, using solar energy to pump groundwater for internally displaced persons in Yemen, assessing the ecological impact of dam construction in Syria, carrying out water audits in major facilities in Jordan, integrated municipal planning and water-demand evaluation in Bahrain and Palestine, and evaluating the economic and environmental impact of water-conservation devices, in addition to reviewing the effectiveness of water-loss reduction initiatives in Oman, optimising the disposal of desalination brine in Bahrain and assessing the performance of water-supply providers in Palestine.

The Regional Centre of the United Nations-Water Learning Center (UN-WLC) for the Arab Region was established in 2007 under a cooperation agreement between AGU and the International Institute for Water, Environment and Health (Canada). To date, the diploma programme has graduated 122 water specialists from across the Arab world. It enjoys the support of key funding bodies: the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development offers five scholarships to candidates from lower-income Arab states; the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences awards three scholarships to Kuwaiti nationals; the UNESCO Office in Cairo provides two scholarships to applicants from low-income countries; and the Gulf Water Science and Technology Association grants one scholarship to a young member.

Delivered in collaboration with the United Nations University and the International Institute for Water, Environment and Health (Canada), the multidisciplinary programme aims to build the capacities of water professionals in integrated water-resources management and to foster comprehensive administrative thinking on all aspects of water resources and related challenges in the Arab region. 

Participants complete graduation projects that apply integrated management principles to water-sector problems in their home countries. Graduates achieving an overall mark of 80 per cent or above may proceed directly to the Master’s programme in Water Resources Management, offered by AGU, subject to standard admission requirements. Research projects are supervised by AGU faculty and external specialists in water, environmental and socio-economic sciences, and all training modules are delivered via distance learning.