Wathersheds of Tacana originate on the volcano, with both shared by Guatemala and Mexico. This region is of great strategic importance for both countries since they supply water to a large number of residents in the cities located downstream and are the main source of irrigation water for agriculture. In the lower reaches, fishing is an important source of income.
Dr Jerome Delli Priscoli is the new Chair of the GWP Technical Committee. However, his history with the network goes back to 1996 at a meeting in Stockholm where GWP was conceived. “The work of GWP is born from a philosophy that is central to my own philosophy, which is a multi-stakeholder, participatory approach,” he says.
The theme for the International Day for Biological Diversity in 2013 chosen by the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD) is “Water and Biodiversity”. This theme was chosen to coincide with the United Nations designation of 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation. The International day for Biological Diversity is celebrated annually on the 22nd of May.
The seventh regional workshop for capacity building of women and men in the media in West Africa was held from 1st to 5th July 2013 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. «Water Financing and the protection of the resource in West Africa" was the topic of this annual event attended by 35 journalists from 12 ECOWAS countries plus Mauritania. It was jointly organized by Global Water Partnership in West Africa (GWP-WA) and the West and Central Africa Regional Office of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN-PACO).
A regional water youth network was created by participants to the recent Youth for Water Conference organised by GWP Central America, Movimiento de Jóvenes por el Agua (Youth Movement for Water, MOJA) and La Ruta del Clima (The Climate Route) and supported by GWP South America, UNICEF-Nicaragua, Reforestamos Mexico, and IUCN.
The Volta River basin remained one of the few unregulated transboundary watercourses in Africa. Action was taken to improve water governance and water management practices. Although this is still in progress, it has resulted in multi-scale participatory governance frameworks for joint management. From this process, it is evident that building a local knowledge base with good data and information systems is important in deciding the most efficient allocation of resources.
The Reventazon River Basin has been subjected to severe degradation, mainly through water pollution, leading to proliferation of disease, increased cost of drinking water, and endangered biodiversity. Action was taken by establishing the Committee for the Management and Planning of the Reventazon River Basin working with conservation and land management. The key lesson for success is the importance of the coordination of the different actors that deal with the basin management.
Due to increased agricultural irrigation and large scale dam projects, and inappropriate land and water management practices, the water inflow to the Komadugu Yobe Basin has dramatically been reduced. Action has been taken to establish a legal and policy enabling environment, as well as to increase knowledge among the local communities to establish more sustainable behaviour. The main lesson learnt was that although a multi-stakeholder participatory approach is slow, it helped to mobilise partnership.
Toward water security and climate resilience
For the very first time, Southeast Asian countries have prepared an overall overview on WRM Financing, where it is linked to the GWP message: finance and good water governance are inextricably linked.