Watersheds are essential to the livelihoods of humans. A significant portion of a society’s economic gain and overall survival is acquired through the ecosystem goods and services provided by watersheds. Jamaica as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) has recently been facing increased stress and vulnerability to its water resources.
The National celebration for World Wetlands Day organised by the Central Environment Authority (CEA) and Wild Life Department (WLD) was held on 2 February 2016 at a wetland site in Chilaw in the North Western Province under the Patronage of His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena. Sri Lanka Water Partnership (SLWP) and Hatton National Bank were the two main collaborators of this national event while Mr Ranjith Ratnayake, Country Coordinator SLWP attended the celebration.
If you are part of the GWP network, chances are that you have met GWP Head of Network Operations, Jacques Rey. He is coordinating GWP programmes in the global secretariat in Stockholm, and has been involved from the beginning of GWP, way back in 1996. Here he reflects on his history with the network.
Under Water and Climate Development Programme (WACDEP), Myanmar WACDEP activity title is Development of the National Water Policy and Water Law with Integrating Water Security and Climate Resilience Aspects into Investment Planning and Decision Making Process. Its goal is to point out the integration of water security and climate resilience aspects to be included in the national water policy and water law.
With aiming the goal of the activity, the works have been initiated with making two assessment studies: Assessment of the National Water Policy of Myanmar (NWPM) and Assessment of the Current Situation of Water Security and Climate Resilience Aspects in Myanmar. After that, identification of these aspects to be integrated in NWPM, how to implement the integration process by means of consultative meeting which will be held among multi-stakeholders from water sector. Finally, selecting and prioritizing the action plans for integrating water security and climate resilience aspects into the NWPM.
To implement the one of action plans as a pilot study which has been selected from already identified National Adaptation Programs of Actions (NAPA). It is selected from water resources sector according to the prioritization of NAPA action plans. Accordingly, selection has been done for a particular area region within the country for pilot study to develop regional rainfall-runoff relationships. For that, Magwe Region has been selected for pilot study and collecting available data including historic records for rainfall and runoff data of streams that are situated in the region. Based on these collected data, regional rainfall and runoff relationships will be developed and these relationships will be given as input to identify and support the country flood early warning system establishment to be able to ensure and making decision for sustainable water management
GWP-Med provides technical assistance to the UfM secretariat that coordinates/supports the drafting procedure of a roadmap and associated work plan for the work of the WEG.
At the 11th GWPSA Consulting Partners held in Pretoria from 12-13th November, 2015, GWPSA Partners elected a new Chair. In line with GWPSA’s Constitution, the Chair will serve for four years. The new Chair, Dr. Kuiri F. Tjipangandjara is from Namibia. He obtained his D Sci Eng Degree in 1991 in Mineral Engineering and Chemical Metallurgy, at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia University, New York City, USA.
In line with the GWP strategic thematic area on urbanisation, GWP is collaborating with AfDB – Africa Water Facility and Partners to support the region and countries in Africa to address challenges related to water management in urban areas in cities in Africa. In view of this, a capacity building workshop on IUWM was held from 25th to 28th January in Abidjan, Ivory Coast aimed at contributing to the well-being of the urban population of Africa by improving water and wastewater services through the implementation of an integrated approach.
The Global Water Partnership West Africa Secretariat has validated the document on the monitoring and planning of activities of the project intitled "Water for growth and poverty reduction in the Mekrou transboundary river basin" or Mekrou Project.
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).
