Mandated by all the Mediterranean countries to monitor the implementation of the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD), including the chapter "water", the Plan Bleu has launched in 2008 a work plan on water use efficiencies with the following objectives: to further the basic data collection needed to calculate the water efficiency index, to provide countries with the methodological support in order to feed this indicator, to assess the progress made by each country in terms water savings and to identify the priority actions needed to improve water use efficiency, particularly under the national strategies for sustainable development.

Eight volunteer countries have responded to develop national reports on these topics: Bosnia Herzegovina, Cyprus, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. These national studies were presented at an experts’ meeting held on November, 5th 2008 at the Plan Bleu in Sophia Antipolis. This meeting has enabled all participants to exchange information, experiences and share the best practices developed in each country.

In view of the foregoing, the Plan Bleu, based on the latest available data on the resources status and the evolution of water demand, as well as studies on water use efficiency carried out in eight Mediterranean countries, has launched some other complementary studies for six countries (Algeria, Croatia, Egypt, Israel, Italy and France), in order to study the feasibility of the regional objective of water saving in 2025 adopted as part of the MSSD and, also, proposed in the Strategy of Water in the Mediterranean, where appropriate, to refine this objective. It then suggested studying the relevance from an economic perspective based on cost-benefit studies of different options for water management. These economic analyses aimed at assessing the cost of water saved and comparing it to that of newly mobilized water / produced. They should thus allow estimating the financial savings that can be achieved by the implementation of Water Demand management policies (WDM) - compared to supply management policies. They should likewise be the basis for improving the inter-sectoral water efficiency. The possible gains from a more efficient allocation of resources between different uses and activity sectors (domestic, tourism, agriculture, industry) can in fact only be assessed locally - depending on the hydro geological context and the value of property products - by the ' cost-benefit " studies from different options.

In the end, the Plan Bleu will develop a regional overview, focusing on results and conclusions of the case studies examined, the economic valuation methods used and therefore the relevance of the regional goal of saving water provided.