The Cercle Elais Hotel in the Commune of Gombe in Kinshasa, DRC was a hive of the SADC Water week activities that ran from the 27th - 29th of April, 2015. This highly anticipated event was perceived as a big water celebration and brought together national stakeholders from a variety of sectors including civil societies, academic institutions and consumer associations. The programme started with the journalists training which was coupled with the youth forum in an attempt to provide the media practitioners with topic ideas on the challenges and realities faced by the young water professionals. The youth aged from 15 to 35 years old were representatives of various students associations, youth organisations and private companies.
From 29th to 30th September, 2015 the meeting of the “Taskforce” for the development of central Africa regional hdyro-meteorological strategy was held in Douala, Cameroon. It was organized by the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in collaboration with GWP-CAf.
In addition to ECCAS and GWP-CAf’s experts, the meeting was attended by national experts in meteorology and hydrology from Cameroon, Congo, Chad, DR Congo, Gabon and Sao Tomé é Principe as well as representatives of UNESCO and Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC).
The “Taskforce” meeting planned during a working visit conducted by GWP-CAf to Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in July 2015, enabled experts to better understand the regional hydrometeorological strategy elaboration process and approve the regional synthesis report of baseline studies for National Hydrological and Meteorological Services conducted in six (6) pilot countries in Central Africa. The road map for the development of regional hydro meteorological services strategy in Central Africa was also discussed and approved.
In Southern Africa, two countries (Tanzania and Zambia) have been selected for the implementation of the SDG Water Preparedness Facility (SDG Water PF). This selection follows the endorsement of Water as one of the 17 goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015 at the UN General Assembly, GWP is developing the SDG Water Preparedness Facility (SDG Water PF), which is designed to deepen and streamline the vision of water security.
Global Water Partnership Southern Africa organised a workshop on the development of a Water Resources Management book for Zimbabwe on the 6th -7th of January 2015. A group of 27 experts (local and regional) met at Bronte Hotel in Harare, Zimbabwe to deliberate on the development of chapters for the proposed book. Experts were drawn from various water related fields namely water and health, hydrology, water supply, water quality, environmental science, freshwater ecosystems, water resource planning, water policy and irrigation, aquatic ecology, groundwater, water resource management, remote sensing, water infrastructure and development, GIS and climate and water resources.
The CWP Ivory Coast took part in the regional training and management experiences sharing workshop between the actors of the Lake Chad Basin and the Mano River Union organized from October 5 to 7, 2015 at the Hotel New Pergola at Abidjan, Republic of Côte d'Ivoire.
The sixth statutory meeting of the Assembly of Partners of Global Water Partnership West Africa (GWP-WA) was held on 7 and 8 May 2015 in Cotonou, Benin. The theme of the meeting was " The challenge of the post-2015 Development Agenda in Africa: what role for Partnerships in the context of Climate Change?'. Organized by the GWP Regional Secretariat in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy, petroleum exploration, mining, water and renewable energy, and the Country Water Partnership of Benin, it was under the patronage of the Minister.
Country Water Partnership of Armenia jointly with its partner - JINJ Engineering-Consulting Company organized a two-day National Workshop "Alternative Approaches for Urban Wastewater Treatment" on 16-17 October, 2014 in the Best Western Hotel in Aghveran, Armenia under financial support of GWP Secretariat, CJSC “Yerevan Djur” and CJSC “Armenian Water and Sewerage”.
The Global Water Partnership (GWP) is pleased to welcome Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia, to the GWP as a Patron of the organisation.