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A secure water world is emerging as a top human development priority in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. But to truly deliver secure and sustainable water for all, policy makers need sound evidence connecting water security to economic growth and development.

This year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP19) brought some good news for the water community, said the GWP delegates who participated at the event in Warsaw, Poland 11-22 November.

AMCOW Executive Secretary Bai Mass Taal delivered a statement from Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia and Patron of Global Water Partnership, at the opening ceremony of World Water Week 2014:

Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe is the largest transboundary lake in Europe. Action has been taken by riparian governments of Russia and Estonia to develop and sign an Agreement on the Protection and Sustainable Use of Transboundary Water Bodies. An intergovernmental commission was established to co-ordinate the implementation of this agreement. Co-operation over Lake Peipsi demonstrates how integrated water resource management tools can be applied to transboundary waters shared by countries in transition.

As part of GWP’s outreach to its Partners, a GWP IWRM ToolBox workshop was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 22-23 April 2015. The workshop was targeted at universities from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, whose staff educate specialists in water management or related fields and sectors.

Limited land space, high population densities and population growth, coupled with increased urbanisation has led to a  decline in freshwater and coastal water quality in the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Caribbean.

Water, which might appear as a gift from nature, actually needs huge human investment in order to serve the varied and growing global demand on this resource. Creating the investment structures and securing the funding to meet water needs is a key enabling factor to achieving good water governance.

GWP is involved in a number of events at this year’s World Water Week in Stockholm. Among the highlights is a joint GWP/OECD Side Event on the “Global Dialogue on Water Security and Sustainable Growth”, where a high level panel will address the water security challenge and present the early results of an Expert Task Force.