The workshop on the mobilization of Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) experts for reshaping hydrological norms was held in Douala, Cameroon from October 20th to 21st, 2015.
This workshop was implemented within the framework of the project known as RESIHYST Africa Project “Hydrological standards reviewing for resilient hydraulic infrastructure to climate change in Africa “. It was organized by UNESCO in collaboration with the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
This workshop brought together ECCAS’ experts in database management, GWP-CAf expert officials from ministries of water, transport, public works and focal points of International Hydrological programme (IHP) from Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe as well as representatives of universities and hydrological research center.
Responding to the dramatic increase in extreme weather events and mega disasters is one of the great challenges of the Limpopo River Basin. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a top priority for the basin as it seeks to hold back the tide of rising economic and human losses through flood and droughts. To reduce risks from such disasters, GWPSA has over the past 2 years been involved in the development of a disaster risk reduction action plan for the Limpopo Basin. This Plan of Action presents a strategy for integrating disaster risk reduction into the Limpopo transboundary level operations. As part of the process to developing the plan, GWPSA held a workshop on the 5th of April, 2016, to validate the draft DRR action plan of the Limpopo Basin.
Regional Day- Global Water Partnership, South Asia
Side Event: “From Risk to Resilience: South Asia Regional Framework for Sustainable Water Management
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.
With global change projections pointing to increasing water scarcity and drought in the Mediterranean, which are bound to cause significant environmental and socio-economic impacts, the development of a new management approach for water basins by integrating scientific thinking with sociological considerations seems essential.
The Mediterranean water community has traditionally been very active at the World Water Forum, the global water community’s largest regular interface with an outreach to actors outside the water box, strongly voicing core messages and highlighting experiences from the region. This contribution has been systematically concretized for each Forum through a dedicated Mediterranean Cross-Continental Preparatory Process.