The 2012 World Water Week takes place on 26-31 August 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden. This year's theme is "Water and Food Security".
Twenty practitioners from the Agriculture Sector in Barbados had the opportunity to be trained in Water Use Efficiency at a workshop put on by the GWP Caribbean and its partner, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, on 5-7 September 2012. The workshop was developed by GWP Caribbean to build capacity for improved water management through water use efficiency techniques in agriculture.
Climate change and the role of water in socio-economic development was the theme of a workshop for journalists organized by GWP Central Africa in Douala, Cameroon, 17-20 December 2012. News reporting, writing techniques and tools for effective storytelling and reporting were also on the agenda for the 21 participants who came from print media and broadcasting.
GWP Myanmar (MmWP) held an open discussion on the needs of water cooperation among water users on 8 November. The aim was to help shape the water resources management in the region.
Stakeholders concerned with water management and food security recently gathered for the First World Irrigation Forum in Turkey. A GWP delegation participated and discussed future collaboration possibilities with forum organiser ICID (The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage).
To improve the state of the Balikpapan Bay coastal ecosystem, a coastal zone management project was initiated. After initial project failure, action was taken for policy reform and an adaptive management approach was developed, focusing on inter-agency integration. This case illustrates the importance of active project learning and adaptive management.
To increase agricultural productivity, the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation has encouraged many farmers to organise water users groups. Yields are to be increased through the collaborative and efficient participation of beneficiary farmers engaged in irrigation. This has led to efficient water distribution throughout the managed watercourse. The most important lesson learnt is the importance of the strengthening of each water user group.
Following the successful implementation of the National Integrated Flood Management (IFM) Programme - Role of Community 2012 last year in Kuala Lumpur, which was attended by participants from the states of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor, the same programme was again planned for this year, but held only at the State of Pahang on 7th September 2013.
The 2013 event, aimed at raising awareness and disseminating information to communities living in flood-proned areas in the State of Pahang, was organised by the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) Malaysia and MyWP Capacity Building Network (MyCBNet) in collaboration with Malaysian Water Partnership (MyWP) and MyCWP.