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GWP SA is a collaborating partner of the WaterNet/ WARFSA/ GWP SA Symposium. The 14^th WaterNet Symposium was held on 30^th October to 1^st November 2013 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The theme of this year’s WaterNet Symposium was “Transboundary Water Cooperation: Building Partnerships”.

Theme - IWRM for harnessing socio economic development in Eastern and Southern Africa

Bingu International Conference Centre, Lilongwe, Malawi, 29 - 31 October 2014

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Global Water Partnership – Southern Africa (GWP-SAf) hosted the 6th Water, Climate and Development Programme for Africa (WACDEP) Technical Coordination Workshop. The workshop took place in Harare, Zimbabwe from 15th – 19th September 2014.

At a time of increasing water demand and the prospect of climate change, the problem of water scarcity in the Mediterranean region and in particular the Greek islands deepens and becomes more critical. Hence, there is an urgent need to enhance water efficiency and to explore further alternatives to ensure water availability using innovative approaches. The revival of traditional water harvesting and management techniques, which have been overlooked in favour of modern technologies, sometimes less sustainable, appears to be one of the most promising alternatives for supplying freshwater in the face of increasing water scarcity and escalating demand.

The Indus River is a major transboundary river in Asia with nine tributaries. The River is about 2,800km long, with 2,682 km in Pakistan. The Indus drainage basin covers an area of about 1,140,000 km2 stretching from Afghanistan through China, India, and Pakistan. Monsoonal rains are the most important flood-causing factor in the Indus basin, followed by the size, shape, and land-use of the catchments as well as the conveyance capacity of the corresponding streams. The monsoon rains fall from June to September, and are generally intense and widespread.

Overexploitation, contamination, and salinisation of aquifers are among the main problems Peru currently faces in groundwater management. To tackle these issues, GWP Peru, with the financial and technical support of GWP South America, held a workshop on “Groundwater: steps towards adaptive and sustainable management” at the National Water Authority’s auditorium in Lima on 9 August 2013.

Water governance remains a key challenge in the Mediterranean. Efforts of countries focus on improving policies making and action planning, institutional settings, law and regulation, enforcement mechanisms, innovative financing, application of cost recovery and polluter pays principle, etc. To achieve sustainable models of development, water must be mainstreamed into other sectoral policies such as agriculture, land planning and use, energy, industry, tourism and trade. Political will is key for making these happen. The importance of cross-cutting issues, such as gender, equity, poverty and rights, is increasingly recognized but is still relatively poorly tackled.

Mongolia was recently established as a GWP Country Water Partnership (CWP). Professor Davaa Basandorj is the Executive Director of the new CWP. He says that the biggest water problem in Mongolia is water shortage, and that the water management in the country has to be improved.

Dniester river basin is a transboundary basin shared by Moldova and Ukraine. Throughout the Soviet era, the water quality deteriorated severely. After the USSR was dissolved, a bilateral agreement was signed by Moldova and Ukraine on the joint use and protection of water resources. This cooperation framework is based on the contributions of network of local authorities. This case illustrates the importance of cooperation among all key stakeholders.

The 5^th Africa Water Week (AWW5) takes place in Dakar, Senegal on 26 to 31 May 2014. The event is convened by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) in conjunction with the African Union Commission and organised with other development partners. GWP is involved in a number of activities.