The largest inner delta area with an almost natural status left in the entire Upper Danube Valley rests in the Szigetköz Region, Hungary. The Danube’s natural landscape in this area was characterized by continuously changing dead branches and side arms, beds changing their location, deteriorating and building islands and alluvial cones. As a result, the ecological environment and human settlements of the area were consistently destabilized. In 2011, the North-Transdanubian Water Directorate (EDUVIZIG) started a water infrastructure project entitled the “Ecological development of water supply system in the protected site and floodplain areas of Szigetköz”. This project shares valuable experience on how to restore the natural ecosystem while securing provision of drinking water and irrigation and enhancing flood protection mechanisms.
The cattle corridor of Uganda has semi-arid characteristics, high variability of rainfall and droughts. The main economic activities in this area are pastoralism and crop production. Historically, the area has been well known for reliance on mobile pastoralism as an important strategy to cope with resource variability. However, people’s abilities to cope greatly weakened as the impacts of disasters became frequent and severe. The recurrence of droughts in the Aswa-Agago Sub-Catchment has been exacerbated by climate change. This has compromised the ability of populations and ecosystems in the area to recover from the shocks.
Tunisian officials discussed the country’s possible accession to the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention) during a national workshop "Benefits of cooperation and the UNECE Water Convention", held in Tunis on 21 and 22 September 2016.
In the run up to the World Water Day 2016, GWP-CAf partners, like Cameroon Ministry of water and energy, private sector, NGOs and civil society organizations, organized the national water week 2016, in Yaoundé, which had as theme “water and jobs” and took place over seven days, from March 17-22, 2016.
Several events took place during the national week. Among which, there was a media workshop; two site visits, conducted, one to the wastewater treatment plant and the other to water treatment plant; a campaign for the dissemination of knowledge and legal text on water sector and sanitation; an exhibition fair; football and power walking and a forum on water jobs. All of these activities ended with a competition for a best poem written and cartoon on “water and jobs” for pupils of 5 schools in Yaounde.
GWP is participating in the UNFCCC COP21 conference taking place in Paris, France from 30 November until 11 December. Funding for water resources management and future financing mechanisms are two of the topics that GWP will speak up for at the gathering.
Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa ( GWPEA)needs to develop a resource mobilization strategy and action plan due to the shift in responsibility for resource mobilization from global to regional and countries. More focus to leverage resource has been shifted to country level while the CWPs do not have capacities. GWP’s role needs to be very visible to development partners and show actual investment on the ground.
The Graeme Hall Swamp is linked to the St. Lawrence Lagoon and is the last remaining coastal wetland in Barbados. The wetland has been designated as a Natural Heritage Conservation Area and has also been established as one of two Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity Programme (CARICOMP) monitoring sites in Barbados. The Graeme Hall Watershed, located in the south of Barbados, spans 1,156 acres. The most significant element of this watershed is the Graeme Hall Swamp.
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.