During the 5th Meeting of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Water Expert Group (WEG) in November 2015, a UfM Ministerial Conference on Water has been proposed to take place the first semester of 2017 in Malta. The technical process towards that was launched with the WEG mandating a Drafting Group to elaborate on technical contents, in case the political partners decide to convene the suggested ministerial meeting.
Water is needed for drinking and irrigation purposes and paradoxically, in Bhutan water shortages occur despite the presence of sufficient resources. In order to provide irrigation water to farmers living in upper slopes and hilltops in Lingmutey-chu who faced issues in accessing water in 2014, a siphon project was initiated by GWP Bhutan/Royal Society for Protection of Nature in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forest in Bhutan.