The World Water Congress kicked off in Scotland yesterday (May 25th, 2015). Since 1973, the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) has held a World Water Congress every three (3) years in various locations around the world.
The GWP’s annual Consulting Partners Meeting and the Regional Days were held from 26 August to 1 September 2013 in Stockholm.
Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) faces considerable challenges in the delivery of sustainable and equitable access to sanitation in rural areas. Small steps have been taken towards increasing national ownership of and political commitment to sanitation in Lao PDR. As a lesson learnt; there is no one blueprint for progress in sanitation delivery. Services can be delivered in different ways– e.g. household investment or direct programmatic efforts.
The eighth session of the learning group in Burkina Faso was held on 28 and 29 July 2015 in the Conference Room of the Directorate General of Water Resources (DGRE). The learning group of Burkina Faso (GAB) is a platform for sharing experiences, knowledge and skills of the water sector actors created in 2011 on the initiative of the Learning Centre on Water Resource Management (RLC-WRM). It brings together NGOs / Associations of the water sector, networks of organizations, development partners, research institutions and state structures. The Country Water Partnership (CWP) Burkina represents the GWP network within the learning group.
The national reserve Sur is deteriorating. Action has been taken by NGOs to initiate a project to restore water conditions in the reserve, including the interplay between water and soil. Despite the projects importance, it failed to be implemented due to conflicts with national authorities. This case illustrates the danger of EU initiatives being implemented without an active public involvement since this creates risks of low acceptance of local communities and land owners.
Based on country studies on Local Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (LIKSP) and how they contribute to enhancing climate resilience in each of the 14 countries in the SADC region, Qandelihle Simelane (regional consultant of LIKSP studies) gave a regional summation from country studies undertaken in the region during the 6th SADC River Basin Organisations (RBOs) Workshop held from the 15th to the 17th of October 2014 at Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa under the theme “Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Resilience in Water Related Disasters.”
The ninth (9th) session of the IWRM Experts Comity of the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) was held in Lomé, Togo on 19 and 20 February 2015. The meeting was called to exchange on the evolution of IWRM in the region and review the ECOWAS/WRCC work plan for 2015.