Every 22 March, the world celebrates World Water Day with this year theme focus on “Accelerating Change to Solve Water and Sanitation Crisis”. Since water affects us all, we have to response with immediate action, as access to clean and safe water and basic sanitation consider human rights, yet large part of the world population still does not have access to it.
Southern Africa is endowed with a complex network of river systems, which are formed extensively from shared watercourses. 15 of the river basins within the region are shared between one or more countries, 13 of which are shared fully within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Cooperation is needed to promote sustainable management, development, and use of these shared water resources. This was one of the recommendations given during the special session on river basin organisations convened by SADC, OKACOM, and GWPSA on 20 October 2022 at the 23rd WaterNet/ WARFSA/ GWPSA Symposium.
A historical reservoir of 800,000 litres was restored for rainwater harvesting to service the sustainable development vision of Birgu City, which becomes Malta’s first Water Saving City, marking 10 years of collaboration between GWP-Med, The Coca-Cola Foundation, Malta’s Ministry for Energy, Enterprise and Sustainable Development, the Energy and Water Agency and local stakeholders. Over 10 years, non-conventional water resources applications under the Alter Aqua programme have saved more than 20 million litres of water annually, benefiting 20% of Malta’s population.
On 12 December, the United Nations, United Kingdom, and France, in partnership with Chile and Italy, will co-host a virtual Climate Ambition Summit 2020 to mark the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Paris Agreement.
On March 29, 2023, the Belt and Road Working Committee of GWP China was established after signing the MoU between GWP China and China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC).
The founding of the Working Committee marked the exploration of the GWP China's regional network to engage the private sector.
On 15th June 2022, the Green Climate Fund Readiness Programme started its implementation in Somalia, targeting the National Designated Authority, which is the Somalia's Ministry for Environment & Climate Change for capacity building and institutional strengthening, to ensure that this office has the necessary capacity to pr ovidestrategic oversight of GCF activities in Somalia
The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on transboundary freshwater security opened in August 2020. A year on, the MOOC has attracted over 2,300 participants from 150 countries, and the course is confirmed for another year on the same platform – with more language versions in the making to reach an even greater audience, and with more interactive events to engage participants. Chinese video subtitles are already available, and several other translations are under preparation.
The members of the regional Steering committee of GWP-Central Africa met in Douala, Cameroon for the 16th annual Steering Committee meeting which was held from November 24th – 25th 2022.
