The Graeme Hall Swamp is linked to the St. Lawrence Lagoon and is the last remaining coastal wetland in Barbados. The wetland has been designated as a Natural Heritage Conservation Area and has also been established as one of two Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity Programme (CARICOMP) monitoring sites in Barbados. The Graeme Hall Watershed, located in the south of Barbados, spans 1,156 acres. The most significant element of this watershed is the Graeme Hall Swamp.
The Chair of Senegal CWP and three members of the steering committee took part in the various activities related to the celebration of the World Water Day in the countries. The official ceremonies took place in Saint Louis this year. The CWP contributed in finalizing the official communications that were delivered in addition to contributing to the panel discussions. The scientific panel took place on the topic “Water and Employment” and presided by the Minister of Hydraulics and Sanitation, Mr. Mansour FAYE. Two communications were made on the topic one covering national data and the second one reflecting local situation.
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.
Under Water and Climate Development Programme (WACDEP), Myanmar WACDEP activity title is Development of the National Water Policy and Water Law with Integrating Water Security and Climate Resilience Aspects into Investment Planning and Decision Making Process. Its goal is to point out the integration of water security and climate resilience aspects to be included in the national water policy and water law.
With aiming the goal of the activity, the works have been initiated with making two assessment studies: Assessment of the National Water Policy of Myanmar (NWPM) and Assessment of the Current Situation of Water Security and Climate Resilience Aspects in Myanmar. After that, identification of these aspects to be integrated in NWPM, how to implement the integration process by means of consultative meeting which will be held among multi-stakeholders from water sector. Finally, selecting and prioritizing the action plans for integrating water security and climate resilience aspects into the NWPM.
To implement the one of action plans as a pilot study which has been selected from already identified National Adaptation Programs of Actions (NAPA). It is selected from water resources sector according to the prioritization of NAPA action plans. Accordingly, selection has been done for a particular area region within the country for pilot study to develop regional rainfall-runoff relationships. For that, Magwe Region has been selected for pilot study and collecting available data including historic records for rainfall and runoff data of streams that are situated in the region. Based on these collected data, regional rainfall and runoff relationships will be developed and these relationships will be given as input to identify and support the country flood early warning system establishment to be able to ensure and making decision for sustainable water management
The state of the drought situation in the 3 countries involved in the IDMP / WA continues with documents validation meetings on the review of initiatives in drought in Mali and Niger, and continued data collection in Burkina Faso.
“Many activities had been done and showed progress in the past five years, but there are also still remaining a lot of challenges and many IWRM activities need to be done in the coming years. However, the new phase of strategy implementation has to be improved and aligned with national natural resources strategy and other water related sector plans as well as the 8th national socio-economic development plans of the government 2016-2020” said Mr. Thoumma Saluemxay, Deputy Director General of Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The workshop on 26 May 2015 highlighted that The Lao National Water Resources Strategy and Action Plan 2011-2015 implementation and development is very crucial for water sector collaboration among stakeholders in the country since the last five years of review.