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.
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.
To commemorate GWP’s 20th anniversary, a 2-minute video has been produced explaining – without words – the challenges of the world’s water crises and GWP’s answer: join our network so that all stakeholders can work in partnership to secure water for sustainable development.
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 30th November to 3rd 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.
A team of GWP-WA and CWP Burkina PNE had on June 11, 2015 a visit to assess the level of implementation of work on the site of the WACDEP demonstration project in Burkina Faso. This project involves the drip irrigation techniques for the efficient management of agricultural water for the benefit of vulnerable populations in the municipality of Loumbila in the center of the country.
Since the last visit in April 2015 there has been plowing work, the installation of some drip irrigation and water pumping equipment with solar energy, among others.