Global Water Partnership - GWP

Supporting Panama and Nicaragua to implement their IWRM Action Plans

GWP Central America provided technical and financial support to the environment ministries of Panama and Nicaragua in 2022 as part of GWP´s SDG 6 Support Programme. Having launched its IWRM Action Plan at the end of 2021, Panama began implementing the plan in 2022, selecting the Parita River basin as a pilot initiative to be replicated in other basins of the country. Concrete priority actions to strengthen the basin management in coordination with the basin committee were identified, and a multistakeholder financing scheme was developed to ensure the sustainability of these actions. Nicaragua also launched its IWRM Action Plan at the end of 2021 and through the coordination of the National Water Authority took important steps forward in its implementation in 2022 by revising the regulation for its Water Law. A series of workshops on monitoring implementation of IWRM at the municipal level to inform the national SDG 6.5.1 report and national planning were also organised.

Nicaragua also launched its IWRM Action Plan at the end of 2021 and through the coordination of the National Water Authority took important steps forward in its implementation in 2022 by revising the regulation for its Water Law. A series of workshops on monitoring implementation of IWRM at the municipal level to inform the national SDG 6.5.1 report and national planning were also organised.

Developing regional guidelines for transboundary water cooperation in Central America

The process of developing regional guidelines for transboundary water cooperation in Central America took a number of significant steps forward in 2022. The process is being led by the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) with the support of GWP Central America and the Secretariat of the Water Convention/United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

An initial draft of the “Proposal for Regional Guidelines on the Principles of Cooperation for Transboundary Water Management in the SICA Region” was prepared and reviewed by Ministries of Environment, Foreign Affairs, and other organizations at the fourth Regional Dialogue on Transboundary Water Resources Management, held in Panamá in June 2022. In October 2022, the draft guidelines were revised by representatives of the ministries of environment and foreign affairs of the countries that are part of the Central American Integration System (SICA).

These developments are part of the regional process to advance in water cooperation, which began in 2019 with the first Regional Dialogue.

Youth water entrepreneurship contest winner announced

In December 2022, GWP Central America announced the winner of its Youth Water Entrepreneurship Contest, a regional contest that aimed to promote solutions to water management challenges in the context of climate change and to engage the youth in the region. Project proposals were received from every country in the region and a team of young people from El Salvador were chosen as the winners. Their project uses artificial wetlands constructed as buffer areas in the mouths of the San José (located in El Salvador) and Ostuá (located in Guatemala) rivers.