Tuesday, 5 June 2018 - Pre-monsoon conditions in Sri Lanka have caused storms (with rainfall peaking at 350 mm over 24 hours) since 19 May 2018 in the southwest parts of the country. Precipitation triggered a flood and landslide situation across the country, affecting thousands of lives and livelihoods, as well as causing damage to property.
In the context of setting the scene for the development of the new GWP strategy, the Regional Days 2018 in Budapest included a session exploring GWP’s current position within the different regions and themes, and how the network adds value. Each region and thematic lead were asked to develop a poster describing their work and application in practice. The below posters are internal GWP working documents.
Stockholm World Water Week (WWW) is an annual focal point for the globe’s water issues. It is organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). This year, the event takes place on 26-31 August. As in previous years, GWP will be involved in many of the sessions.
It was during the 8th Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) River Basin Organisations (RBOs) workshop that took place from 8-9th May, 2018 in Windhoek, Namibia that participants recommended that SADC RBOs should play a more active role in facilitating investment for water, energy and food security in the region.
The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on sustainable development in 2018 is held on 9-18 July at the UN Headquarters in New York, USA, under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council. GWP will be represented at the event.
In December 2016, China issued a document to implement a river chief system nationwide. A river chief, as the name suggests, is responsible for the management and protection of watercourses, as well as preventing pollution and restoring the water ecology. Government officials are hired as river chiefs at provincial, city, county and township levels. Heads of provincial regions will be general chiefs that are responsible for all rivers and lakes in the region.
Monika Weber-Fahr took up her new position as Executive Secretary of Global Water Partnership on 7 May. “As the newest kid on the block I’m feeling very humbled. I’m inspired by what the network is and what it has done in the past 20+ years, and what it can do going forward in a world where water is such a huge priority”, she says.
Bhutan Water Partnership (BhWP) aligned to the World Water Day theme ‘Nature for Water: exploring nature-based solutions to the water challenges we face in the 21st century’ conducted a drainage cleaning exercise on 22 March in Thimphu, Bhutan.
GWP Senior Network Officer (SNO) Julienne ROUX took the opportunity of her stay in Ouagadougou to meet and get to know some of GWP/WA's strategic partners. Together with the executive secretary, she met the ECOWAS Water Resources Coordination Centre (WRCC) and the Executive Directorate of the Volta Basin Authority (DE ABV).
