Uneven geographical distribution, coupled with pressures from rapid population growth, increased urbanization, industrialization and environmental degradation, is a big challenge to the sustainable development of Uganda’s freshwater resources. However, the policy and institutional framework has advanced over the past two decades in Uganda. The policy and legal reform process started with the introduction of the Water Act (1995) and the Uganda Water Action Plan (1995). Other key policies included the National Water Policy (1999) and the Local Government Act (1997, 2000). A key Lesson learnt is that political support matters in achieving success, as does the nature and logic of the political system. In Uganda, political prioritization of water and poverty was central to progress. The depth and longevity of sector reform relies on political support, which can ebb and flow.
The Lempa River is shared by Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, making its management a good example of transboundary cooperation. To reach consensus, action was taken to develop a treaty as part of a regional process. However, since the treaty was not accompanied by strategies designed by local actors, it is somewhat weak. Nonetheless, this case illustrates that political willingness is crucial for advancing towards IWRM in transboundary watersheds.
At the SADC Water Week in Mozambique held from 20-22 May, 2015, stakeholders discussed the challenging aspects of managing water resources in the country in view of Mozambique sharing a number of river basins with its neighbours. For instance, the supply of water for the river basins located in the southern part of the country is heavily dependent on the Basins of international rivers. The solution to this challenge was seen in Mozambique requiring to always adapt an integrated water resources management approach and having long-term cooperative arrangements with its neighbours to avoid water availability being a constraint on future growth.
The Global Water Partnership (GWP) has sponsorship available for eligible participants to complete the online course in Integrated and Adaptive Water Resources Planning, Management and Governance offered by McGill University’s Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) will be hosting a National Stakeholder Consultation in Trinidad on April 16th, 2014 which forms part of a global consultation exercise to get country level feedback from twenty-six (26) countries on proposals for a dedicated Water Goal in the United Nations (UN) Post-2015 Development Agenda.
The Limpopo River Basin (LRB) which has a total population of 18 million with 15 million in South Africa, 1.2 in Botswana, 1.1 million people in Mozambique, 0.8 million in Zimbabwe is prone to natural disasters as a result of climate change. Therefore, on the 24th of November, 2015, Resilience in the Limpopo Basin Program (RESILIM) in partnership with Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP SA) undertook an in-country consultation workshop on the development of the Limpopo River Basin Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Action Plan.
Interview with Mr. Mansur Abduraimov, Chairman of the NGO "Zarafshan River Basin Protection" in Uzbekistan.
Two of the regional ‘sister networks’, Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP-SA) and WaterNet held a regional knowledge exchange workshop from the 12th to 13th of August 2014 at Protea Edward Hotel in Durban, South Africa. The workshop was aimed at strengthening the partnership between the two networks in knowledge management and professional capacity development. The workshop addressed three critical issues: providing an overview of GWP’s Knowledge Management strategic thrust and the GWP IWRM Toolbox; strengthening the GWP-SA and WaterNet partnership on ‘research for development’; and building on professional capacity development.
On October 15, 2014, Dr. Li Tao, the Director, and Ms Wang Dan of the China Regional Office of IWA visited GWP China Secretariat and had discussion about cooperation between the two organizations on the Symposium on Water, Energy and Food Nexus scheduled on Nov. 11-13, 2014 in Beijing China.
GWP is introducing several new publications at World Water Week 2014: two GWP Technical Committee Background Papers, one Perspectives Paper, one Briefing Note and one Proceedings Paper. All of these are available online, and in hard copy through the GWP online order form.