The Upper Mur River is considered as one of the most ecologically valuable rivers of Austria due to the natural reproduction for the Danube salmon. The systematic regulation of the river began at the end of the 19th century, distributaries were cut off and large areas were drained in order to intensify agricultural land use. Restoration measures started in 1997 in the area of the Upper Mur and the “Grenzmur”. Various projects facilitated the renaturation of more than 22 km both in the upper course and the Slovenian border section of the river. A policy issue highlighted by the project is the importance to reconcile key needs for nature conservation with demands for renewable energy generation from small hydro power plants.
Climate change and the increasing number of competing water users have led to the overexploitation of the Pangani river basin resources. Action has been taken to establishing environmental, economic and social implications of different river flow scenarios under expected climatic conditions. This helped to prioritize the allocation of water resources to meet basic human needs and those of ecosystems. The main lesson learnt was that providing a platform for dialogue between key stakeholders and increasing knowledge about the climatic variability and future risk are essential for successful water management solutions.
Interview with Kuralay Yakhiyaeva, the main specialist of the Kazakh Branch of the Scientific Information Center of Interstate Commission for Water Coordination
The Country Water Partnerships invited to take part in the inaugural session of the Steering Committee meeting of GWP met with the Regional Secretariat and the Network Officers in the afternoon of November 25. This was an opportunity to review the latest version of the GWP 2014-2019 Strategy and GWP West Africa 2014-2016 Work Programme as well as initiatives and opportunities that may be of some interest to CWPs.
GWP is a Collaborating Partner of the 2013 World Water Week, and will be convening and participating in many of the events happening 1-6 September in Stockholm. GWP will also launch several new publications, as well as a brand new website for the IWRM ToolBox.
GWP China Yellow River, jointly with Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research and Yellow River Research Society, invited stakeholders from governmental organizations and NGOs as well as related experts and practitioners to discuss how to make better practice of integrated river basin management of the Yellow River under the new policies on November 20 and 21, 2013 in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.
A workshop on Water Integrity took place from 20-22 May 2013 at Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa. The workshop discussed the theme “Strengthening Civil Society and Media’s Role in Promoting Integrity and Accountability in the Water Sector”. The course was part of a larger capacity building programme on integrity and accountability in the water sector developed by the UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI, Cap-Net, WaterNet and the Water Integrity Network (WIN) in order to assist in building institutional capacity among key stakeholders. Previous workshops have targeted water managers, and other water decision-makers as primary target groups.
Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP) Training of Trainers (ToT) on ‘Economics of Adaptation, Water Security and Climate Resilient Development in Africa’ - Contribution to national adaptation plan Global Support Programme (NAP-GSP) – will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 25th to 29th November 2013.