The Global Water Partnership Southern Africa, on behalf of the Strengthening Institutions for Transboundary Waters Resources Management in Africa (SITWA) project held a regional consultation for about 20 participants to ensure regional stakeholder input into the draft 10-year strategy and a detailed 5-year action plan of the African Network of Basin Organizations (ANBO) was held on 30th and 31st July, 2014 at the Gaborone Sun hotel in Gaborone, Botswana.
The 7th SADC Multi Stakeholder Water Dialogue, a biennial activity which provides a platform for regional stakeholders to discuss and share experiences on different aspects of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) will this year be held from the 29th to the 30th of September in Windhoek, Namibia. Running under the theme “Watering Development in SADC: The central role of water in driving industrialization” this year's Water Dialogue will focus on unpacking the role that water will play in driving industrialisation in the region. [Read more on previous dialogues]
During the year, Vietnam Water Partnership reviewed the existing irrigation management status and plan as well as drafted a proposal for new irrigation management plan. Two key government institutions, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) of Vietnam, are fully supporting the implementation of the activities that are under WACDEP program. Vietnam Water Partnership also coordinated closely with National Focal Point of Vietnam to UNFCCC, which will utilize the results of this program into other program of climate change agenda in the country.
On March 20, 2015, before the world water day, the GWP China Fujian organized the “Training Workshop on Development of Water-Eco Civilization Progress” in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province with the support of GWP China and the Water Resources Department of Fujian Province.
In a quest to leverage funding for projects in the water sector, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate (MEWC) in collaboration with the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) hosted a Water Resources and Infrastructure Investment Conference at Rainbow Towers in Harare from the 24th to the 26th of June 2015. The conference attracted more than 400 delegates and was officially opened by the Vice President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, the Honourable E.D Mnangagwa and was also graced by the Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation for the Republic of South Africa, the Honourable Pamela Tshwete and Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, the Honourable Saviour Kasukuwere.
SRI is as a set crop management practices for raising the productivity of irrigated rice by changing the management of plants, soil, water and nutrients. One of the important treatments of SRI is that standing water is not essential anymore instead the soil is kept just fairly wet and thus creating aerobic-anaerobic conditions during the cultivation period. This treatment gives distinct behaviors of water regimes allowing more proliferation of roots and the most important is capable to enhance the activities of soil micro-organisms.
Lebanon and Jordan are exploring the possibility of joining the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention). To assist the two countries in this process, UNECE and the Global Water Partnership - Mediterranean (GWP-Med), with financial support provided by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), have organised national workshops to increase awareness and understanding of relevant stakeholders of the different legal and institutional frameworks for cooperation on shared waters resources, the specificities of the UNECE Water Convention, in comparison to the UN Watercourses Convention, as well as the complementarity of the two agreements.
The West and Central Africa Programme of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN / PACO) and the Global Water Partnership West Africa (GWP-WA) released today March 11, 2015 the names of the winners of the second edition of the "Water and Environment Journalism" competition.
A validation workshop was held on 19 and 20 February 2015 in Niamey, Niger for the validation of three studies carried out in December 2014. The first one was on the national consultation on the objectives and methodology of the Mekrou project, the second one on the institutional participatory diagnosis and the third one on the assessment of existing capacities and the needs for capacity building for knowlegde management organizations in the country.