Dr. Nicole Bernex is a Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and a Member of the GWP Technical Committee. She has been active in the GWP network for many years, the past ten of them through GWP Peru. When asked to talk about a topic close to her heart, Dr. Bernex chooses a project that GWP has been running successfully in Peru for the past two years, the Santa Eulalia Water, Climate and Development Programme.
In the 2015accounts audit report, the auditor's conclusion was the following: "We believe that the financial report of the Regional Water Partnership for West Africa (GWP/WA) and the CWPs (Burkina and Ghana) accurately reflect the statement and financial position of the Regional Water Partnership for West Africa and the CWPs (Burkina and Ghana) as of 31st December 2015, consistently with the GWP financial procedures.”
The way forward in 2016 is to strive to implement all partially implemented recommendations including those made in 2014 and those made as of 31st December, 2015. It should be noted that almost all new recommendations dating from 31st December 2015 have already been implemented prior to the finalization of the audit report in 2015 in Burkina Faso and for the region.
The water awards is the last initiative of the Country Water Partnership (CWP) of Burkina Faso. The aim of the Water and Sanitation Awards is to enable the identification of relevant actions in the water and sanitation sector, in order to acknowledge and honor the efforts of individuals and legal entities which are either at the base or contributed to the achievement of these actions. The ambition is to give visibility and promote water and sanitation as central to sustainable development in the country.
The CWP Burkina organized a guided tour on Friday, March 4, 2016 on the pilot project on drip irrigation using solar energy on the site of Ramintenga in the municipality of Loumbila. Representatives of the town hall of Loumbila, the Regional Chamber of Agriculture (CRA) of the Central Plateau, the Regional Directorate in charge of Agriculture, hydraulics, sanitation and Food security (DRAHASA), the Malgb-Zanga Association, the local Water committee of Northern Massili, members of the SIDWAYA group, and CWP-Burkina took part in the tour.
Cooperation between GWP Slovakia and the Eastern Africa region has been in existence for quite some time. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Khartoum in March to outline the next steps of collaboration.
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.
GWPSA facilitated the LIMCOM Technical Task Team Meeting that was held to develop the Limpopo River Basin IWRM Plan 2016-2020. The workshop took place in Johannesburg on the 6th and 7th of April, 2016. The 2016-2020 plan follows the 2011-2015 IWRM LIMCOM Plan that came to an end in 2015 and had adopted a comprehensive approach to Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) through three strategic areas, namely: i) Water Governance, ii) Water Management and iii) Water Resources Development. It was against these areas that the new plan would be developed.
Global Water Partnership Southern Africa provided a Technical Assistance support to the Preparation of the Seychelles Integrated and Comprehensive Sanitation Master Plan from the 21st to the 24th March 2016