Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) with support from the European Union recently held an inception workshop on NEXUS at the Vaal, South Africa to help address Southern Africa’s complex and interdependent challenges.
Global Water Partnership-Southern Africa (GWP-SA) announced its re-positioning to re-align and adapt to regional and continental industrial strategy that will entail greater focus on water security, jobs and investments.
South Africa was the first of seven countries to kick-start a global consultative process to agree on the values of water in a bid to ensure more equitable use of water as it's becoming a limited resource.
A water, energy and food nexus demonstration project, under the Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP), is set to be implemented in the Tuli- Mtshabezi River Sub Basin of the Shashe sub catchment with emphasis at Mtshabezi Mission to build the resilience of the community around the Basin. As part of the preparatory work scheduled prior to project implementation, an exploratory site visit was undertaken by the team of consultants from the water, energy and food sector on the 17th of July 2015.
Over the years, the people of Seychelles have had an increased access to an improved drinking water source. Statistics show that access to water stood at 88.9% in 1990 and at 97 percent in 2010 respectively. Similarly, indicators of access to improved sanitation show an increase from 78% in 1994 to over 97% in 2012.
The SADC Water week in Zambia was held in Lusaka from 8th - 10 July 2015. It was a rich and fruitful event which brought together a variety of stakeholders to input into the formulation of the 4th SADC Regional Strategic Action Plan.
On the 24th of May 2015, in Dakar, Senegal, GWPSA was presented at a validation workshop of the draft Priority Action Plan (PAP) for addressing Transboundary Water Resources Management. The workshop went towards the process of mainstreaming the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) Strategic Framework on Water Security and Climate Resilient Development. The workshop was attended by Representatives from the following organisations; African Union Commission (AUC), AMCOW Secretariat, AMCOW-TAC Chair and TAC Vice Chairs Regional Economic Communities (RECs), River and Lake Basin Organisations (R/LBOs) and Global Water Partnership.
GWPSA is using a number of knowledge products (information briefs, animations, checklists, slideshows, glossaries and infographics) in providing an easy understanding of “investing in the management and development of shared water courses”. The knowledge products also set out key messages advocating for more investments in the management and development of shared water courses. This is to ensure improved water security and climate resilience through strengthening cross-sectorial national engagement to integrate water issues into socio-economic development and climate change adaptation processes.
The fifth National Training Workshop related to the implementation of the WACDEP Capacity Development Programme on the “Economics of Adaptation Water Security and Climate Resilience Development” was held in Maputo-Mozambique on the 09 - 10 April 2015, at the National Director of Water Affairs (DNA) premises. The opening was done by the Deputy National Director for Water, Mr. Hélio Banze.