From a distance, Kalima Primary School in Chikwawa district in the Southern part of Malawi looks like any other public school in the country; happy children running up and down around the school campus but cautious of the scotching heat. Temperatures in Chikwawa can get as high as 40 degrees Celsius and yet, the only water tap at the school is mostly dry. Children must brave both the heat and unending desire to quench their thirst.
Development partners in the Water and Sanitation sector in Malawi have bemoaned the financial gap that is hampering access to clean water. Data by Malawi’s National Statistics Office shows that 14% of Malawians, about 2.6 million people, do not have access to safe water, and about 27% of the population walk for over an hour to access safe water.
Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSAF) led by Vice Chair Eng. Munashe Mvura, attended a Diplomatic Corps working luncheon on July 26, hosted by the Chief Executive Officer of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) Ms. Nardos Bekele- Thomas.
The Zambian Government has launched an almost USD $6 billion Water Investment Programme, aimed to provide access to clean water and decent sanitation and create hundreds of thousands of jobs by 2030.
A two-day meeting convened - March 23 and 24 - by Zambia’s Ministry of Water Development and Sanitation, has recommended key water investment focus areas that will form the composition of the Zambia Water Investment Programme (ZIP), to be launched in July 2022, on the margins of the African Union Heads of State Summit in Lusaka.
The White House Action Plan on Global Water Security, launched by the Vice President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris, on 1 June 2022, presents significant opportunities for achieving climate-resilient water security in Africa where the joint World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF statistics estimates over 400 million people do not have access to clean drinking water and over 700 million live without access to good sanitation.
Global Water Partnership - Mediterranean is seeking to hire a Programme Officer. The successful candidate will be hired by the Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE), a civil non-profit society based in Greece, in its capacity as Host Institute for GWP-Med.
At the U.N.’s Stockholm+50 Conference, GWP and partners explored how the concept of water alignment can enable transformation across stakeholders and sectors, strategies, political leadership, finance, and action, with water as a central driver for sustainable development and climate resilience.
About 500 GWP partners from the thirteen GWP Regions gathered online on May 25th for the 2022 GWP Network meeting to share experiences and discuss initiatives geared toward leading the change and innovation in the water sector.
As the world faces the challenges of climate change, population growth, and urbanisation, GWP’s 2022 Network Meeting of Partners centred around the question, 'how can we push innovation in water?' “You will get some ideas from us, but what is more important is the voice from our Partners,” said GWP’s Executive Secretary and CEO Darío Soto-Abril, as more than 320 participants joined from 95 countries.
