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).
Taking advantage of his stay in Abidjan as part of the establishment of the ABCBT, the Chair of GWP-WA had an exchange meeting on Thursday 26 April 2018 with stakeholders of the CWP Côte d'Ivoire (PNECI). The meeting was attended by some members of the Steering Committee and the Scientific and Technical Committee of the CWP. The exchanges focused on the revitalization of the Country Water Partnership of Côte d'Ivoire.
The ECOWAS/WRCC accompanied the countries sharing the Comoé, Bia and Tanoé river basins (Mali, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire) in the process of establishing a common authority.
To support local authorities in the development of initiatives to promote Integrated Water Resources Management, CWP-Benin in partnership with Protos highlighted 4 initiatives for the economic development and local governance of water from artesian boreholes in the Mono basin.
A call for university professors has been launched to participate in a workshop to review and comment the ToolBox Teaching Manual by professors from Latin America specializing in different aspects of water management who have deep experience both in research and teaching water management. The event will take place in Panama City on July 25-27, 2018.
