The Government of Malawi, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development assured that the Malawi government is working hard to address the challenges rocking the water sector in the country. Malawi hosted the SADC national week whose focus is on mainstreaming gender in water issues. The event was held from 13-15 May, 2015 at Crossroads Hotel, Lilongwe. The SADC Water Week, held under the theme “From Vision to Action” was attended by delegates from government ministries, civil society and the private sector.
At the SADC Water Week in Mozambique held from 20-22 May, 2015, stakeholders discussed the challenging aspects of managing water resources in the country in view of Mozambique sharing a number of river basins with its neighbours. For instance, the supply of water for the river basins located in the southern part of the country is heavily dependent on the Basins of international rivers. The solution to this challenge was seen in Mozambique requiring to always adapt an integrated water resources management approach and having long-term cooperative arrangements with its neighbours to avoid water availability being a constraint on future growth.
The Limpopo River Basin (LRB) which has a total population of 18 million with 15 million in South Africa, 1.2 in Botswana, 1.1 million people in Mozambique, 0.8 million in Zimbabwe is prone to natural disasters as a result of climate change. Therefore, on the 24th of November, 2015, Resilience in the Limpopo Basin Program (RESILIM) in partnership with Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP SA) undertook an in-country consultation workshop on the development of the Limpopo River Basin Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Action Plan.
The Integrated Drought Management Project in West Africa (IDMP-WAF) was officially launched at the workshop held on 28 and 29 January 2015 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Forty participants including 4 women, mainly from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, Sweden, Switzerland and representing regional (CILSS, ECOWAS) and international organizations (ACMAD, WMO and GWPO) took part in this meeting placed under the patronage of the Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources, Sanitation and Food Security of Burkina Faso.
1. Ghana: WACDEP supports GWJN Way-forward exercise
CWP-Ghana/WACDEP has supported members of the Ghana WatSan Journalists Network (GWJN) to undertake a Field Exercise aimed at assessing residents’ access to portable water in some selected communities in Accra as part of activities marking the World Water Day. This is a Way forward activity of the Media Training that was carried out in September, 2014. There were about 20 participants drawn from the membership of the network including in the print, radio, online and television media. The activity was monitored by the Communications officer.
1. Ghana: WACDEP supports GWJN Way-forward exercise
CWP-Ghana/WACDEP has supported members of the Ghana WatSan Journalists Network (GWJN) to undertake a Field Exercise aimed at assessing residents’ access to portable water in some selected communities in Accra as part of activities marking the World Water Day. This is a Way forward activity of the Media Training that was carried out in September, 2014. There were about 20 participants drawn from the membership of the network including in the print, radio, online and television media. The activity was monitored by the Communications officer.
Water insecurity costs the global economy some US$ 500 billion annually, according to Global Water Partnership (GWP). That figure does not take into account environmental impacts so the total drag on the world economy could be 1% or more of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Over thirty (30) representatives from key regional and international water and finance institutions will meet in Barbados on April 9th and 10th, 2015 to help steer a new Caribbean Climate-Proofing Water Investment initiative spearheaded by the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) under its Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP) executed in collaboration with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC).
The Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP SA) partnered with UNDP to follow up with a set of national dialogues on water. The water dialogues form part of the 11 thematic consultations now underway by the United Nations (UN) in preparation for developing Sustainable Development Goals (SD) in 2015. GWPSA engaged stakeholders from three countries to organise consultations during the months of February – April 2013. These are South Africa, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
An important facet of the work of the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) is to generate and communicate knowledge. We specifically encourage and support young people to be fully engaged in learning and sharing knowledge on water security and related issues.