The Segura Basin in Spain is the driest in Europe. With 365 mm of annual rainfall, this basin has the lowest rainfall in the European Union. Nevertheless, it is also a region which exports fruit and vegetables. The Segura River is thus the main water sources for irrigation. In 1986, when Spain became a member of the European Union, the production of agriculture and canned food significantly increased. As a consequence, a rise in wastewater discharges and lack of water in the already water-stressed Segura River brought extreme deterioration of the water-related ecosystem and a strong social discontent.
Taking advantage of their presence in Ouagadougou, the GWP WAF chair, Abel AFOUDA and the network officer for West Africa visited with the Executive Secretary some of our partners. In view of getting in touch with the technical and financial partners, a series of meetings were organized.
Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa in partnership with Nile IWRM Net/Cap-Net are organizing a training on applying Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) tools for Drought Risk Management. The training will take place in Nairobi, Kenya, 20-24 June 2016. It is open for a maximum of 30 participants from the Eastern Africa region.
The First High Level Ministerial Panel on Responding to Climate and Environmental Challenges in South East Europe (SEE) took place on 1st April 2016, in Podgorica, in the framework of the South East Europe Strategy 2020 and the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC).
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.