On January 12th, 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit a point 15 km southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It led to more than 230 000 deaths and significant physical destructions. The response actions were limited by the underlying vulnerabilities that existed in the country prior to the event and by a lack of coordination among decision-makers. This study intended to improve the understanding of policy-makers, water and sanitation practitioners and researchers on the actions that have been taken and their outcomes in the water and sanitation sector in Port-au-Prince. It revealed that weak governance coupled with poor infrastructure can result in catastrophic scenarios after the occurrence of a disaster.
Within the context of the partnership ECCAS-GWP signed in December 2013, a meeting held in Libreville, Gabon from 29th to 31st of July 2015 brought together the two parties.
The meeting aimed at assessing the progress made in the process of developing a regional strategy and action plan for hydrological and meteorological services in Central Africa on the one hand and take stock of the process of the creation and operationalization of the Regional Solidarity Fund for Water following the submission of the final document to ECCAS for validation on the other hand.
A team of GWP-WA and CWP Burkina PNE had on June 11, 2015 a visit to assess the level of implementation of work on the site of the WACDEP demonstration project in Burkina Faso. This project involves the drip irrigation techniques for the efficient management of agricultural water for the benefit of vulnerable populations in the municipality of Loumbila in the center of the country.
Since the last visit in April 2015 there has been plowing work, the installation of some drip irrigation and water pumping equipment with solar energy, among others.
The state of the drought situation in the 3 countries involved in the IDMP / WA continues with documents validation meetings on the review of initiatives in drought in Mali and Niger, and continued data collection in Burkina Faso.
After the validation of roadmaps and the signing of different agreements, the month of June was marked by the start of the investigations by young people from Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo. These actions are carried out with the financial support of GIZ for Benin and financial support of GWP / WA for Burkina Faso and Togo.