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.
Water Security for Development
Water is the key to the world’s ability to cope with climate change. Whether it is food security, poverty reduction, economic growth, energy production or human health – water is the nexus. Climate change is the spoiler. No matter how successful mitigation efforts might be, people will experience the impacts of climate change through water.
GWP is responding to the climate change challenge through the Global Water, Climate and Development Programme that includes a portfolio of programs and projects that aim to build climate resilience through better water management.
A three-day National Adaptation Plan (NAP) training workshop was held from the 3rd to 5th of September in Salima, Malawi as an effort to help the Government of Malawi identify the next steps in establishing a NAP process. The workshop was highly interactive drawing upon a broad range of climate sensitive sectors and stakeholders, and was successful in reaching its overall objectives of building an understanding of the NAP process and to draft a roadmap for country level advancement.
GWP representatives will be at the 7th World Water Forum in Korea in April, taking part in many of the events and sessions of the conference. In addition to delegates from the global secretariat, some GWP Regional Water Partnerships are actively facilitating the regional processes.
Large scale projects in Slovakia caused negative effects in terms of biodiversity losses and reduced floodplain ecosystem functions. To combat this, a project “Integration of Ecosystem Management Principles and Practices into Land and water Management” of Laborec-Uh region was initiated. This case illustrates the importance of accounting for both biodiversity and economic returns when developing projects.
Investments for water security and climate resilient development can benefit from combining different funding sources. Matching climate finance with traditional water finance from Official Development Assistance (ODA) and private sector is a good strategy. Stay tuned for guidance and information on funding sources and best practices and guidelines for accessing funding.
The Pantanoso watershed in Montevideo has been identified as vulnerable to threats of intense rains and floods, posing risks to the human settlements. To combat the risks, action was taken by the local population and governmental authorities to engage in a project on Climate Related Disaster Risk Management. The key lesson is that strengthening vulnerable communities upon climate risks represents a key tool for the IWRM, since it contributes to empowering the population.
“A lot is going on but we are not aware of it. We live in a small region but we don’t know what each other is doing in terms of teaching water resources management in universities,” was the key message of Professor Adrian Cashman from the University of West Indies, Cave Hill Campus at the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Knowledge Sharing workshop in Barbados on June 5-6, 2013.
Uneven geographical distribution, coupled with pressures from rapid population growth, increased urbanization, industrialization and environmental degradation, is a big challenge to the sustainable development of Uganda’s freshwater resources. However, the policy and institutional framework has advanced over the past two decades in Uganda. The policy and legal reform process started with the introduction of the Water Act (1995) and the Uganda Water Action Plan (1995). Other key policies included the National Water Policy (1999) and the Local Government Act (1997, 2000). A key Lesson learnt is that political support matters in achieving success, as does the nature and logic of the political system. In Uganda, political prioritization of water and poverty was central to progress. The depth and longevity of sector reform relies on political support, which can ebb and flow.
Preliminary planned Project Manager’s trip to the pilot sites at the end of 2013 could not be implemented due to various organizational, financial and visa problems. Starting from the first quarter of 2014 the familiarization with the ongoing work on the program pilot sites began in coordination with the national project teams.