The Upper Mur River is considered as one of the most ecologically valuable rivers of Austria due to the natural reproduction for the Danube salmon. The systematic regulation of the river began at the end of the 19th century, distributaries were cut off and large areas were drained in order to intensify agricultural land use. Restoration measures started in 1997 in the area of the Upper Mur and the “Grenzmur”. Various projects facilitated the renaturation of more than 22 km both in the upper course and the Slovenian border section of the river. A policy issue highlighted by the project is the importance to reconcile key needs for nature conservation with demands for renewable energy generation from small hydro power plants.
Preceded by a series of regional workshops in Africa, Latin America, South-East Asia and Central Asia organized by IUCN and IWA since 2012, the Symposium on Infrastructure Solutions in the Water-Energy-Food Nexus was taken place at the Beijing Friendship Hotel, starting on Thursday 13 November and ending on Saturday 15 November, 2014, in Beijing. GWP China was formally invited to be the co-sponsor of the symposium jointly with IUCN and IWA .
The farmers in the Volta river basin generally rely on rain-fed agriculture. However, insufficient or irregular rainfall frequently puts farmers at risk of losing their crops. Farmers must have access to a reliable water supply to sustain their livelihoods. In line with the problems highlighted, the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) set out to find ways to strengthen the capacity of the famers, communities and other stake holders in the basin. As a lesson learnt, it is reasonable to expect stakeholders to adopt improved agricultural practices if such new practices are of their own benefit. Experiences show that stakeholders will only participate in innovation platform meetings when they see the value of doing so.
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Following the in-country consultations with the key stakeholders and institutions to review and update into an Action plan ‘the Limpopo Basin Strategic Plan for reducing vulnerability to floods and droughts’, GWP SA conducted in country consultations in Zimbabwe. This review is part of the assistance being given to the LIMCOM in order for it to develop a Disaster Risk Reduction Action Plan.
Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe (GWP CEE) organized an innovative session on stakeholder involvement in water resource management at European River restoration Conference (ERRC) 2014 in Vienna on 29 October 2014.
A field trip to the Secretariat of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) as well as to water management national institutions in selected Danube Riparian countries - Austria, Slovakia and Hungary – that are active in the framework of the ICPDR, was organized on 8-10 October 2014.