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Representatives of GWP Kenya and GWP Ethiopia recently carried out an exchange visit to share experiences on water resources management practices.

In the run up to the World Water Day 2016, GWP-CAf partners, like Cameroon Ministry of water and energy, private sector, NGOs and civil society organizations, organized the national water week 2016, in Yaoundé, which had as theme “water and jobs” and took place over seven days, from March 17-22, 2016.

 

Several events took place during the national week. Among which, there was a media workshop; two site visits, conducted, one to the wastewater treatment plant and the other to water treatment plant; a campaign for the dissemination of knowledge and legal text on water sector and sanitation; an exhibition fair; football and power walking and a forum on water jobs. All of these activities ended with a competition for a best poem written and cartoon on “water and jobs” for pupils of 5 schools in Yaounde.

Global Water Partnership Southern Africa attended training on the application of Environmental Flows in the management of transboundary river basins in Southern Africa, with a special focus on the Pungwe River Basin. The training which brought together about 20 participants was an IUCN initiative and was held from 30^th November to 3^rd December in Cape Town, South Africa.  The main parties involved were the government representatives of both Mozambique and Zimbabwe who share the river Basin and therefore needed to come together and agree on the Environmental Flows requirements to ensure equitable socio-economic development and growth.

GWP supports mandated institutions in designing and implementing water-related policies, legislation, action plans, strategies, and programmes based on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). GWP offers IWRM technical capacity development activities for officials and technical experts working in the field of water and environmental resources management. Examples include professionals working with river basin organisations, catchment agencies, national, and provincial/state governments. 

Coordinated action at the Drin Basin level was absent until the development of the Shared Vision for the sustainable management of the Drin Basin and the signing of a related Memorandum of Understanding (Tirana, 25 November 2011) by the Ministers of the water and environment management competent ministries of the Drin Riparians i.e. Albania, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Kosovo* and Montenegro. This was the outcome of the Drin Dialogue supported by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and coordinated by UNECE and Global Water Partnership Mediterranean (GWP-Med).

The Chair of GWP WAf, Pr. Abel AFOUDA had a working visit at the Secretariat from October 19 to 24, 2015. During his stay on Ouagadougou, the Chair met with the staff to have an update on the implementation of various activities and give his orientations for finalizing pending issues.

He was presented the templates for the monitoring and drafting of the work plans, the draft progress reports of the CORE and the three projects bein implemented (WACDEP, IDMP and Mekrou), the guidelines for elaborating the budgets lines for 2016. On all these Prof. AFOUDA gave some orientations. The decision was also taken to convene the virtual meeting of the Steering Committee to appreciate the various documents and give orientations to the Secretariat. This meeting will be done early in November 2015.

 

Addis Ababa, 18^th – 19^th May 2016

Representatives of Asian and Pacific countries, stakeholder groups and development and humanitarian partners will gather in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 3-6 July, for the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR). GWP will be represented at the event.

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.

2015, with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement, was a year of key commitments to sustainable development by governments, civil society, and the private sector.