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.
We are looking for young activists to join forces for water & climate!
Five awards of €1,000 each are available for youth-led projects which are based on the white paper recommendations made at COP 21.
The largest inner delta area with an almost natural status left in the entire Upper Danube Valley rests in the Szigetköz Region, Hungary. The Danube’s natural landscape in this area was characterized by continuously changing dead branches and side arms, beds changing their location, deteriorating and building islands and alluvial cones. As a result, the ecological environment and human settlements of the area were consistently destabilized. In 2011, the North-Transdanubian Water Directorate (EDUVIZIG) started a water infrastructure project entitled the “Ecological development of water supply system in the protected site and floodplain areas of Szigetköz”. This project shares valuable experience on how to restore the natural ecosystem while securing provision of drinking water and irrigation and enhancing flood protection mechanisms.
The Executive Secretary of GWP, Rudolph Cleveringa, says that GWP as a network needs to change: “We can’t use the same agenda as we did 20 years ago”. Approaching World Water Day 2016, Cleveringa takes a moment to reflect on GWP’s 20 years in the water world and talks about his vision on how to make the network fit for the future – local inclusion and diversity are words he uses to make his point.
Three factsheets on the three demonstration pilot projects of the Integrated Drought Management Project (IDMP) West Africa have been produced. These factsheets give basic information on the various pilots projects being carried our in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in the framework of the IDMP. The French version of the factsheets are available and can be downloaded here.
Given the importance of WRCC in coordinating water resource management in West Africa in particular and that of ECOWAS generally politically and economically, and because of the many joint initiatives underway, GWP / WA met with the Director of WRCC, Ibrahim Babatunde WILSON. The GWP delegation led by its Chair, Prof. Afouda, included the Executive Secretary and the Mekrou and IDMP projects officers.
The two organizations raised a number of initiatives underway at GWP / WA of which WRCC is an integral part, including the Mekrou project, IDMP, or those in which the WRCC should take the lead like the initiative on the regional dialogue on the joint management of shared aquifers in West Africa.
In the run-up to the World Water Day 2016, let’s become ambassadors for change. Let’s address water scarcity utilizing options beyond the conventional!
GWP Vice Chair and member of the Steering Committee, Drs. Alice Bouman-Dentener participated in the High-Level Symposium on SDG 6 and Targets in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on 9-11 August.