DISCUSSIONS MODERATORS
Dr. Hanane BENQLILOU
Head of technical assistance at the International Institute of Water and Sanitation (IEA) under the
National Office for Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE). Main missions include:
- Leading Water and Sanitation Capacity Building Programs for Africa,
- Designing and managing practice-oriented research projects specific to the needs of
Morocco, particularly regarding integrated water resources management, and considering
the impacts of climate change.
Dr. Hanane BENQLILOU Water, Energy, and Environment’s Expert holds a master’s degree in Urban
and Territorial Management from ESSEC/ISCAE in the field of water governance in Southern
Morocco. She also holds a PhD in Materials Science on lithium batteries, from the “Ecole Nationale
Supérieure de Chimie, de Biologie et de Physique” of Bordeaux (ENSCPB), and from the “Institut de
la Matière Condensée” of Bordeaux (ICMCB).
With a rich experience of twenty years at ONEE in the fields of governance, management, and
improvement of the performance of drinking water supply systems, she is now a member of several
working groups and scientific committees including, at the international level , The
Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (UNESCO-IHP), the World Health Organization (WHO),
and the International Water Association (IWA), as well as the national level such as the National
School of Chemistry of Kénitra (ENSC).
Dr BENQLILOU accompanied a major project to generalize access to drinking water in Morocco and
led several applied research projects in partnership with national and international academic bodies.
These research projects have led to solutions and improvements in the performance of drinking
water supply systems in its various phases, from production to distribution, and the mitigation of
environmental impacts.
Through her involvement in applied research in the field of water, she has supervised several
students in Moroccan universities at masters’ and PhD’s levels. Thanks to her resourcefulness, she
has published several articles in various fields of water including publications on the traditional
water management systems of the city of Fez and the Khettara.
Hanane Benqlilou is particularly keen to contribute to the knowledge and expertise sharing in the
field of water. She believes that the best way to do this is through specific capacity-building
programmes in an integrated vision of the development of practical solutions adapted to the context
of Morocco and Africa and considering climate change.
Dr. Dominique BEROD
Dr Dominique Berod is the Chief of the hydrological monitoring and data management Section at the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO). He is responsible for WMO activities on hydrological observing, data
management and sharing, supporting global efforts for, e.g., climate resilience and early warning systems. He
is member of steering boards related to global data centers and geospatial networks dealing with climate, water
and environment.
Before joining WMO in 2015, he was from 2008 to 2014 the Head of the Swiss National Hydrological Service.
Until 2008, he was the Head of the flood protection and river restoration unit in the canton of Wallis,
Switzerland.
Dominique Berod holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the Swiss Institute of Technology
at Lausanne (EPFL, 1989) and a PhD in Hydrology from the same university, in collaboration with the Louisiana
State University at Baton Rouge, USA (1994).
Dr. Fairouz MEGDICH KHARRAT
Fairouz Megdiche is assistant professor of architecture and urbanism at the University of Sousse (Tunisia) and researcher at the laboratory “Governance, Ambiances and Development of Cities” GADEV/UMRAN (ENAU-EDSIA, University of Carthage, Tunisia). She holds a double PhD diploma in “Men, Spaces, Time, Resources, Environment” from Sorbonne Université and in “Studies of Landscapes and Development of Territories” from the University of Sousse. She earned the advanced certificate in “Geographic Information in Urbanism” from the EPFL and the University of Geneva (Switzerland). For 2018-19 she obtained the Excellence scholarship for foreign students from the Swiss Confederation for her postdoctoral research and was nominated for the award Pierre Massé 2019 for francophone PhDs related to water. She works on cultural landscapes, sustainable habitat and traditional water resources management. Her expertise covers areas in Europe (Central Valais, Switzerland) and in the MENA region (Southern Tunisia, Northern Oman and Central Iran). Lately she came up with the concept of “Cistern City” as an integrated solution for managing cities’ waters and cope climate change. She is Associate Editor at Les Cahiers Géographiques de l’Ouest (EISSN: 2992-2097, Algeria) and member of the editorial commission of ‘Umrānīyāt the International Journal of Spaces and Urban Territory (ISSN: 2534-8183, Tunisia). She is member of the IAHS Working Group on “Co-creating Water Knowledge”. She is also an active member of the UNESCO chair on Water, Waste and Energy (Lamsin/ ENIT, University of Tunis El Manar), a member of the international network ESCWA-AWARENET (Arab Integrated Water Resources Management Network), a member of AGIOS in charge of the associations partnerships (Tunisia), a guest member of the Association Paesaggi Meridiani (Italy).