In the race to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the role of small-scale WATSAN (water and sanitation) providers is indispensable. However, as this report "Small-scale finance for water and sanitation" claims, there is little awareness or cohesion among external support sgencies (ESAs), including EU donors, on the best way to increase financing for small-scale providers.
The Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP SA) partnered with UNDP to follow up with a set of national dialogues on water. The water dialogues form part of the 11 thematic consultations now underway by the United Nations (UN) in preparation for developing Sustainable Development Goals (SD) in 2015. GWPSA engaged stakeholders from three countries to organise consultations during the months of February – April 2013. These are South Africa, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
India is currently facing huge challenges in water management, including disputes on reservoir releases, over-exploitation of groundwater resources, degradation of wet lands, salt-water intrusion in coastal regions and shortages in drinking water supply. Action was taken to initiate a pilot research project to generate and disseminate knowledge. This case study illustrates that pilot demonstrations and capacity building are a prerequisite for promoting improved water management practices to all stakeholders.
During the last week of August, representatives from GWP from across the world gathered in Stockholm to discuss the strategies of the network, past and future. Some of the voices from the network can be heard in GWP’s video library – 13 new video features voices spanning from South East Asia to the Caribbean.
With one of the lowest per capita freshwater resources in the world, China have been investing in and seeking new ideas and methods for improving both supply side and demand side management of water resources. This has included numerous experiments in “eco-compensation”. These experiences demonstrate that eco-compensation should be considered as a potential tool for Integrated River Basin Management to address financing shortfalls, identify management pitfalls, and convince key stakeholders to participate.
Wathersheds of Tacana originate on the volcano, with both shared by Guatemala and Mexico. This region is of great strategic importance for both countries since they supply water to a large number of residents in the cities located downstream and are the main source of irrigation water for agriculture. In the lower reaches, fishing is an important source of income.
The Office of the Prime Minster of Kosovo in cooperation with Global Water Partnership organized a National Drought Dialogue on 12 November 2014 in Pristina.
GWP participated in a meeting of the Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences (IANAS) in Lima 2-4 December 2013. The topic was urban water management, and the meeting enabled advances in the elaboration of the IANAS book “Urban water in the Americas”, to be launched later this year.
Frederik Pischke joined GWP as a Programme Officer in the summer of 2013. He is part of the global GWP secretariat in Stockholm, but Frederik is based in Geneva, Switzerland. He works with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in a unique collaboration between GWP and WMO, with strong focus on floods and droughts. Frederik explains the background.
The round table "Role of water for sustainable development of Kazakhstan" was held on 4 April 2014 in Astana within the national consultations on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the National Program on Water Resources Development to Post-2015 in Kazakhstan.