March 22 marks World Water Day 2017. This year’s theme is wastewater. GWP has published two blogs about the theme, and conducted a Facebook Live interview with Rami Abdel Rahman of the Sweden Textile Water Initiative. Around the GWP Network, various celebrations are taking place. However, the main GWP celebration this year concerns the very website you are currently on – the launch of a completely new www.gwp.org.
The program on River Black (Hei He in Chinese) has implemented from 2016. The GWP China Yellow River worked with the River Black Administration to implant ‘sense of ecosystem’ into the mind of decision makers of to improve the environmental quality of the river basin. The WACDEP in China (2017-2019) emphasizes ‘integrated river basin management (IRBM)’ implementation outcomes of the River Black Basin.
One of the key outcomes from the High-Level Panel on Water (2016-2018) was to establish a set of 5 principles on Valuing Water. Following from those recommendations, the Valuing Water Initiative (VWI) was created to support actors in putting those principles into practice. Since the beginning, GWP has been committed to promoting the Valuing Water Principles (VWPs) and using value-based approaches as part of its efforts towards improving water resources management. In collaboration with VWI, GWP supports events and consultation engagement processes at regional and global scales, mainstreams the VWPs in the design and implementation of IWRM plans, promotes the VWPs within its youth engagement initiatives, and develops knowledge products and methodologies related to Valuing Water.
A GWP Partner embraces the cross-sectoral range of civil society organisations, private sector actors, and government bodies that have a bearing on the sustainable management of water resources, and is committed to an integrated approach.
On Wednesday 22nd March, 2017, GWPSA’s Executive Secretary and Head of Africa Coordination Unit, Mr. Alex Simalabwi, together with GWPSA programme staff attended the United Nations World Water Day Summit and Expo in Durban, South Africa to mark the 2017 World Water Day global celebrations under the theme “Wastewater”. The summit and expo were hosted by the Department of Water and Sanitation, in partnership with the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government and UN Water.
Anna Tari, Kristóf Stefán and Nikolett Szabó from Szent László Grammar School, Budapest won Hungarian Final of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize on 20 May with a project „Tanks of Water”.
The interdependence between Water, Energy and Food security (WEF) offers opportunities for stronger collaboration among the three sectors, thus increasing the strength of tackling the region’s developmental Agenda leading to the achievement of the SADC Goals of Peace and Stability, Regional Integration, Industrialisation and Poverty Eradication.
Coinciding with World Water Day, 22 March, GWP is launching a brand-new website – in 14 editions! Every GWP region (13 in total) has its own regional website, plus the global website www.gwp.org tying them all together. This hasn’t changed, but in addition to a new responsive look and design, the big makeover lies in new search functions for knowledge, news, events, and partners, as well as highlighting GWP's results.
