International donors have poured money into developing Nepal’s irrigation infrastructures since the late-1950s, but results remain only partly successful. At present, irrigation infrastructures have been developed to serve 1.331 million ha but the irrigation potential is estimated to about 1.76 million ha. The Irrigation Water Resources Management Project is one of the latest international aid efforts aimed to developing the irrigation facilities while improving Nepal’s institutional framework pertaining to water infrastructure projects. The importance of adequate and timely finance, well-defined administrative roles and institutional capacity building are part of the key lessons learned from this project.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature Central Africa and West African Programme (IUCN/ PACO) as part of its program "Partnership for environmental Governance in West Africa (PAGE)", Global Water Partnership West Africa (GWP / WA ) and the Regional Partnership for the Conservation of coastal and marine zone in West Africa (PRCM) as part of their respective work programs are launching the third edition of the "Water and Environment" media contest.
The Ministry of Water and Irrigation (Tanzania), together with the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) Secretariat, is organizing the 6th Africa Water Week to be held at Mwalimu Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre, Dar es Salaam from 18th – 22nd July, 2016. The Tanzania Water Partnership has been coopted by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation as one of the lead institutions constituting the National Organizing Committee (NOC) for the 6th Africa Water Week. Several members of TWP are part of the NOC.
Apart from making effort in re-establishing the partnership, Stakeholders in Tanzania have been involved in a number of activities. Recent activities have included:
The partnership operates under 7 thematic areas. These focus areas are in line with the overall GWP strategy and have been identified to address the various challenges in the water sector in Tanzania.
The Tanzania Water Partnership (TWP) was launched in Feb 2004 as the 8th Country Water Partnership (CWP) in the Southern African Sub Region. By then, it was called CWP. However, there were only a few activities that were registered between 2004 and 2013. Sporadic efforts to keep and sustain the partnership did not yield much success and hence dormancy dominated most of this period.
In Sub Saharan Africa, climate change is worsening at an alarming rate. The situation on food security vis-à-vis water resources is serious and everyone has a responsibility to develop appropriate means to address the issue. Following national consultations in the led-up to the UN Committee on Food Security’s (UN CFS) 42nd session last year, 50 representatives from 9 countries across Africa met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 18-19 May to prepare for the next step; moving from identification to implementation (#WFEEnexus).
In Sub Saharan Africa Climate Change is worsening an already alarming situation vis-à-vis food security and water resources and everyone has a responsibility to develop/ use appropriate means to address the issue.
Nine countries in Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda) carried out national consultations on water and food security whose outcomes were used by (or contributed for) the United Nations Committee on Food Security (UN CFS) to issue recommendations on Water and Food Security and Nutrition at the end of 2015 offering a strong basis for a new momentum.
Dr. Kuiri Tjipangandjara, GWPSA’s Chairperson will be discussing “The State of Namibia’s Water Security: Assessment and Proposed Interventions”. The lectures will be held on 2 ^& 16 June, 2016 and attempt to quantitatively assess the state of water security in three regions in Namibia, namely the Central Area, North Central Area and Central Coastal Area. The results show that Namibia’s water security for the three areas varies from low to very low – ranking between 50-61%. Guided by the results from the respective Areas, the intervention options were identified, compared and contrasted.
Research and Development (R&D) Institutions have a key role to play in Africa’s economic renewal and sustainable development, by improving conservation and utilisation of the continent’s water resources through R&D efforts. In its stride to continue collaborating with R&D institutions, GWPSA’s Executive Secretary, Ms Ruth Beukman participated at a kick off of the NEPAD Networks of Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Water Sciences Phase II meeting held at the Southern Sun- The Cullinan hotel in Cape Town, South Africa from the 24th to the 26th of May, 2016.