A secure water world is emerging as a top human development priority in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. But to truly deliver secure and sustainable water for all, policy makers need sound evidence connecting water security to economic growth and development.
An expanded GWP Technical Committee (TEC) meeting took place 29-30 August in Stockholm, bringing together 35 participants and experts selected by the GWP regional partnerships. GWP Executive Secretary Dr. Ania Grobicki encouraged the participants to work as “One GWP”.
In order to contribute to the comprehensive and sustainable economic development in the region, GWP Central America has launched the Water, Climate and Development Programme, a programme that will promote water security as a strategic adaptation to climate variability and change.
The Water, Climate and Development Programme in South Asia was developed to support countries and regional organisations to integrate water security and climate resilience programming at transboundary, national and local levels through policy dialogues and participatory approaches.
In Kyrgyzstan, lack of drinking water and access to sanitation is a pressing problem which reinforces social vulnerability and poverty. Financed by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, actions have been taken to improve access to drinking water and sanitation by the Ministry of Health. These projects had a high level of community involvement which increased the sense of ownership.
The city of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh is mainly receiving its water from Upper Lake. However, in the past decades, the water quality has steadily been deteriorating. This has led the government to take action and implement an integrated lake conservation program. The case demonstrates that all the stakeholders, especially, Urban Local Bodies and the public representatives should be involved in the decision making from the very beginning of such projects.
As part of the two-day Meeting of Regional Partners in Water and Wastewater, the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C), the United Nations Environment Programme, Caribbean Regional Coordinating Unit (UNEP-CAR/RCU) and the Global Environment Facility’s Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management (GEF CReW) partnered to host a special Knowledge Sharing Session on New Tools and Resources for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the Caribbean.
South Asia Regional Workshop on Lessons Learnt in Strategy Implementation on Climate Change Adaptation in Water Sector is scheduled to be held from 9 to 10 September 2014 in Colombo, Sri Lanka; organised by South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) in partnership with GWP South Asia.