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With natural water supplies no longer meeting the growing demand in several countries throughout the region, non-conventional water resources, such as treated wastewater reuse and desalination, are increasingly becoming an additional contributor to water availability. Related environmental, energy, health and other impacts need to be carefully considered while defining the potentials and limitations of such options. Improving non-conventional options demands better planning and regulation; coordinated investment; monitoring of operations; building managerial capacity; and, where relevant, mitigating their negative impacts including along the coastline. Overall, where development of non-conventional options is necessary, it should be combined with water demand management actions. In relation and beyond these, a strong demand for integrated urban water management, including through blue-green approaches and practices, has emerged.

At the end of last year, the GWP network consisted of 13 Regional Water Partnerships, 84 Country Water Partnerships, and 2,904 Partners located in 172 countries. The Annual Report for 2013 is now completed and available online.

On the occasion of National Consultation Dialogues in Romania and Lithuania, today Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe releases a video about the Integrated Drought Management Programme in Central and Eastern Europe.

The World Water Council and the Japan Water Forum invite grass-roots organizations from developing countries to submit their candidatures for the 4th edition of the Kyoto World Water Grand Prize.

Communicatorsfrom the GWP regional offices are undergoing 4 days training in designing communication and knowledge management strategies in Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava from 9-13^th December 2013.

GWP SA was invited to join about twenty other stakeholders in a discussion convened by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) Brownbag. The discussion was held on 27^th November 2013 to converse food insecurity in Southern Africa. The brown bag represents an effort to engage stakeholders to dialogue in order to address deeper problems – focusing on changing underlying policy, legislation and practice, rather than on short-term welfarest interventions. The discussion was moderated by Masego Madzwamuse, the Economic Justice Programme Manager at OSISA.

Reba Paul from Bangladesh was awarded a scholarship with the International WaterCentre (IWC) in Australia last year. Reba’s scholarship is a collaboration between GWP and IWC – one that will expand to a second scholarship in 2014. As the application deadline approaches, Reba tells her story below.

The Expert Task Force of the joint GWP/OECD Global Dialogue project met in Paris in November to evaluate their work on the economics of water security. The report will be finalized in the coming months, before the official version is presented at the World Water Forum in South Korea in April 2015.

The Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) and the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) are seeking a Consultant to review and revise the Antigua and Barbuda Draft National Water Policy (Drafted in July 2011), with consideration of institutional changes to date, on-going processes and highlighting the evolving nature of the water sector due to climate change.

World Water Week 2014 takes place in Stockholm from 31 August to 5 September. This year’s theme is “Energy and Water”. Global Water Partnership will be involved in a number of activities during the week-long event.