Reports of the devastation after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines are making headline news across the world, with estimates that up to 10,000 people have lost their lives, and numbers are rising. One of the most immediate needs is getting clean drinking water to the survivors.
Due to increased agricultural irrigation and large scale dam projects, and inappropriate land and water management practices, the water inflow to the Komadugu Yobe Basin has dramatically been reduced. Action has been taken to establish a legal and policy enabling environment, as well as to increase knowledge among the local communities to establish more sustainable behaviour. The main lesson learnt was that although a multi-stakeholder participatory approach is slow, it helped to mobilise partnership.
The Caribbean Weather Impacts Group (CARIWIG) is a new initiative setting out to create tools that will enable access to climate change information which are specifically applicable to the Caribbean region. To support the development of the Project, key regional stakeholders including GWP Caribbean, gave input at a Regional Stakeholder Consultation workshop on 6-7 February, 2013 in Jamaica.
To identify the best approach to increase public participation in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, the EU funded research project River Dialogue was initiated, testing two specific participatory methods of citizens’ involvement. This case illustrates the means by which local people, who are not specialists, can take part in discussions and decision-making process of complex environmental issues.
The GWP’s annual Consulting Partners Meeting and the Regional Days were held from June 23 to 28 in Port of Spain, the capital of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, sponsored by the GWPO and organized by the GWP Caribbean Region. The delegation of the GWP China was sent to participate in all the events and the discussions.
During 2012-2013, GWP Latvia co-produced a movie "Staburadze, are you still crying?", coordinated by Daugava Museum in Latvia.
GWP Lithuania and Poland take part in a consortium led by Stockholm International Water Institute to support sustainable water resources management of international rivers shared by countries in the Eastern part of the Baltic Sea.
Here's a closer look at the winner and Honourable Mention awardees in the 2013 Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) Media Awards on Water.
To stimulate new thinking to improve Sri Lanka’s natural resources management, the first Young Water Professionals Symposium for the country was organized by GWP Sri Lanka in association with IWMI and Unilever on 22-23 November in Colombo with the participation of the Hon Minister of Water Supply and Drainage Dinesh Gunawardene and Prof Mohan Munasinghe, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2007 (IPCC), and over 150 participants.