The management of water resources in Bangladesh involves a centralised, heavy engineering approach in order to control floods and install irrigation, however, there is now a pressing need for ensuring social justice and equity in water resource development. Recognising the role of water in poverty alleviation, action has been taken to implement a 25-year National Water Management Plan. Although this is one important step, it is evident that many issues require more work.
A Global Soil Partnership was launched at the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on 7 September 2011. It will help to implement the provisions of the World Soil Charter, adopted in 1982, and to raise awareness and motivate action by decision-makers on the importance of soils for food security and climate change adaptation and mitigation. As such it will complement the work of the Global Water Partnership.
Water and its management is becoming not just a local but a global priority. The UN Rio+20 Declaration emphasises the need to establish a green economy as the means to achieving sustainable development while protecting and improving the world’s natural resources. Water is increasingly seen as a central plank of the green economy. It is embedded in all aspects of development – food security, health, and poverty reduction – and in sustaining economic growth in agriculture, industry, and energy generation.
The 2nd High-Level Regional Policy Workshop focusing on “Adapting to Climate Change Induced Water Stress in Nile River Basin,” resolved to bridge the gap between science and policy, enhance the efforts of generating and sharing knowledge about climate change and conducting hotspot analysis at country level.
With the full support of GWP China Fujian, the revisit, a follow-up to the workshop on WUA last year, was made by Mr. Khalid Mohtahdullah, GWPO Senior Advisor, Mr. Bjorn Guterstam, GWPO Network Officer, Mr. Zheng Rugang, GWP China Coordinator and Ms. Ma Yilin, GWP China Programme Officer accompanied by Mr. Liu Ziwei, Honorary Chair of GWP China Fujian and Deputy Director General of Water Resources Department of Fujian Province and Mr. Bian Hongda, Chair of GWP ChinaFujian, in Taining County, Sanming City, Fujian Province on April 16, 2010.
The Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa Secretariat held a consultative meeting with local government officials to garner consensus and local government’s feedback on the project’s objectives, intended outcomes, foreseeable challenges and steps to garner citizen participation and support for the WACDEP Trans-boundary project.
Territory of Moldova is divided into two major basins – Dniester and Danube Rivers.
With a focus on the Buna/Bojana transboundary river (shared between Albania and Montenegro), a methodology is being developed that effectively links IWRM and ICZM (integrated coastal zone management). This work includes developing a joint IWRM/ICZM generic planning framework and working towards the launch, in 2012, of the joint IWRM/ICZM Plan for this specific transboundary basin.
On April 18, 2011, Ministers issued a Declaration expressing their support for the continuation and enhancement of the Drin Dialogue with the assistance of GWP Mediterranean and the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and for the preparation of the Shared Vision for the management of the Drin Basin.