As part of the ongoing efforts to generate more interest among journalists in reporting on environmental issues, the Ghana Country Water Partnership (CWP-Ghana) has supported some members of the Federation of Environmental Journalists (FEJ) of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) to undertake a four day field trip. This trip was organised to the Prestea-Huni Valley District in the Western Region to build the students’ capacity in Environmental Reporting. The purpose of the Field trip was to train the students’ practically on on-field data gathering and reporting methodologies. The trip was from 06th to 09th January, 2016. There were 21 participants. Leading the team was Mr Frederick Asiamah, an environmental journalist and expert from the Ghana WatSan Journalists Network (GWJN).
The Regional Coordinator visited the Ramitenga site where the Burkina WACDEP is implementing its pilot project for the demonstration of drip irrigation through solar energy to boost agricultural production.
After a year of operation to the satisfaction of the solar installations, and in accordance with the contract, a general review of equipment installed was made, followed by a final acceptance on December 23, 2015 by the Executive Secretary.
GWP-Med, along with partner organisation Lions' Club, is coordinating a national campaign in Tunisian primary schools for awareness raising with regards to water scarcity and the importance of water saving, during the month of February. The campaign is called ÔVI (eau=vie / water=life) and is taking place within the framework of the activity "La Jeunesse Francophone pour l'eau" [Francophone Youth for Water], jointly held by the Global Water Partnership (GWP) and the Office Franco-Québécois pour la Jeunesse (OFQJ), as well as the BeWater Project and the work it does on raising the Tunisian youth's voice on water resources management.
Global Water Partnership Southern Africa organised a workshop on the development of a Water Resources Management book for Zimbabwe on the 6th -7th of January 2015. A group of 27 experts (local and regional) met at Bronte Hotel in Harare, Zimbabwe to deliberate on the development of chapters for the proposed book. Experts were drawn from various water related fields namely water and health, hydrology, water supply, water quality, environmental science, freshwater ecosystems, water resource planning, water policy and irrigation, aquatic ecology, groundwater, water resource management, remote sensing, water infrastructure and development, GIS and climate and water resources.
Sustainable Water Integrated Management – Support Mechanism (SWIM-SM), the largest water-related regional project supported by the European Commission (EC) during 2010-2015, successfully concluded its phase I, and held its Final Steering Committee (SC) Meeting in Luxembourg, on the 25th of November. With a budget of 7.7 million Euros, the project was implemented in nine south Mediterranean countries[1] by a consortium led by LDK and with GWP-Med as the project technical director.
Reflection workshop on « Sustainable livelihoods in wetlands in developing countries: the vision of the African youth” initiated by Water For Life Cameroon within the context of the celebration of World Wetlands Day and in partnership with GWP-CAf was held on February 3rd, 2016 in Yaoundé, Cameroun.
21 Participants drawn from 13 Cameroon youth led-organizations working for the protection of environment and research centers attended the workshop on wetlands.
The objective of the workshop was to raise awareness on the position of youth on the importance of the interdependence between human livelihoods and wetlands in urban and rural areas in order to catalyze change in the utilization of resources offered/generated by the wetlands.
“Many activities had been done and showed progress in the past five years, but there are also still remaining a lot of challenges and many IWRM activities need to be done in the coming years. However, the new phase of strategy implementation has to be improved and aligned with national natural resources strategy and other water related sector plans as well as the 8th national socio-economic development plans of the government 2016-2020” said Mr. Thoumma Saluemxay, Deputy Director General of Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The workshop on 26 May 2015 highlighted that The Lao National Water Resources Strategy and Action Plan 2011-2015 implementation and development is very crucial for water sector collaboration among stakeholders in the country since the last five years of review.
Lao Water Partnership with support from GWP Southeast Asia held a seminar on 15 June 2015 to support the Government of Lao PDR’s policy in relation to preparation and finalization of national socio-economic development plan 2016-2020, Strategy 2025 and Vision 2030, which related to national sustainable development and green economy.
Mr. Thoumma Saleumxay, Deputy Director General of Department of Water Resource, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, chaired the meeting and expressed on the important of Integrated Water Resources Management, sustainable development management in Lao PDR in in his opening remarks.
Climatic conditions of Poland are characterized by small amount of precipitation that is relatively favourable distributed during a year. Most of the precipitation occur during summer, which is the period with the highest demand for water. Despite this fact, in most of the country (except the seaside and the highest mountains) a significant deficit of water can be observed.