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Agriculture: the major sector of water consumption

Intensive abstraction for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes has led to depletion of surface and groundwater bodies. Overexploitation of groundwater resources in particular, has led to seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers. Over the last 50 years, water demand for all sectors of activity together has doubled to reach 280 km3/ year in 2007.

The Network Specialist acts as the liaison between the Global Water Partnership (GWP) Secretariat in Stockholm, Sweden and each GWP region for which they are responsible. The Network Specialist therefore provides support in the implementation of the GWP Strategy at the regional and country level.

The challenges China is facing with the rapid growth of urban centres, and the corresponding demands on limited water and related resources, is immense. This is true on the Loess Plateau which covers an area of some 640,000 km² in the upper and middle of China's Yellow River. A workshop on “Efficient Use of Water Resources and Ecological Compensation” was co-organized by GWP China-Yellow River and the Yellow River Research Institute on 27-28 September 2010, in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.

Drought in the Caribbean is affecting national economies and key sectors such as agriculture, energy production, tourism and water supply. This crisis was the focus of the 6th High Level Session (HLS) of Water Ministers in the Caribbean on 3-4 October 2010 in Grenada. The gathering has been organized annually since 2005 by GWP Caribbean in conjunction with the Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA).

On October 20, 2010 in Beijing, the WWF Beijing Office released the new book “The Management Practice on Rural Drinking Water Security Project in China” which was jointly edited by WWF and the Rural Drinking Water Safety Center of Ministry of Water Resources (MWR).

The Sino-Swiss Cooperation Dialogue was taken place in the office building of the Ministry of Water Resources on October 19, 2010.

The Fourth Wei River Forum was joint organized by the GWP China Shaanxi, Shaanxi Provincial Department of Water Resources and Wei River Management Bureau of Shaanxi Province in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province on October 13, 2010.

The Central and Eastern Europe region of the Global Water Partnership (GWP CEE) has called for pollution prevention and the regular inspection of polluter operations in light of the toxic sludge disaster in Hungary.

Caribbean Ministers of Water will meet to discuss water security at the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean’s (GWP-C) and the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association’s (CWWA), 6th High Level Session (HLS) in Grenada on October 3rd and 4th, 2010.