The Five Year (2014-2018) Strategic Plan for Burundi Water Partnership was presented to development partners on 25 September, 2014 in Bujumbura. The conference that was opened by the Assistant to the Minister in charge of water (MEEATU) aimed to create a platform to raise funds for the implementation of activities contained in the different project proposals of the strategic plan for water resource management and climate resilience.
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.
“There is a need for the Himalayan Third Pole Circle to play a more proactive role through various national and international organisations to mitigate climate change.”
Bangladesh Water Partnership (BWP), in collaboration with the Institute of Microfinance (InM), organised a seminar on 15 November on micro finance in climate change adaptation. The aim was to identify bankable projects and overcome challenges at village level in implementing climate resilience projects.
GWPSA will participate in a panel discussion and make a presentation on “Sharing of experiences on successful Water Conservation and Demand Management Programmes in other countries”. The discussion is a part of the sector policy dialogue on Water Conservation and Water Demand Management (WDM) that will be hosted by the Policy Unit under the Department of Water Services, South Africa, and will be held on Wednesday 16th March, 2016 in Pretoria.
In collaboration with the White Volta Basin Office of the Water Resources Commission (WRC), the Ghana Country Water Partnership (CWP-Ghana) has carried out the validation workshop for the report of the study on "Socio economic and environmental analysis and Logical framework development of field interventions for building community resilience in the White Volta River Basin".
A series of activities called The Great Walk for Water initiated by some NGOs will be held from 22 February to 22 March 2015 to draw the World attention on the future "disappearance" of Lake Chad, if nothing is done. This great walk for water is a media caravan, actions and multidisciplinary activities to advocate for an increased attention on the situation of National and International Watercourses in Africa in general and especially the Lake Chad.
A Regional Training on Drought Risk Management and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is being organized by the Nile IWRM-Net/ Cap-Net and Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa (GWPEA) and will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 15-19 June 2015.
In a quest to leverage funding for projects in the water sector, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate (MEWC) in collaboration with the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) hosted a Water Resources and Infrastructure Investment Conference at Rainbow Towers in Harare from the 24th to the 26th of June 2015. The conference attracted more than 400 delegates and was officially opened by the Vice President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, the Honourable E.D Mnangagwa and was also graced by the Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation for the Republic of South Africa, the Honourable Pamela Tshwete and Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, the Honourable Saviour Kasukuwere.
On November 19, 2014, Dr. Zhong Lijing from the WRI China visited GWP China Secretariat to discuss the possibility of developing salon series under theme of water dialogue in coming years.