Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are deemed to be some of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. This is in part attributed to sea-level rise, coupled with the small size of these territories amidst growing populations and other development challenges. Of these development challenges, achieving water security remains an enduring issue which will only be further exacerbated by the threat of climate change.
On March 31st 2014, the Costa Rican Congress passed the new Water Law. For over a decade the Central American countries have been working on reforming their water legislative and institutional frameworks, and one of the pioneers in this process has been Costa Rica.
The Second workshop of the Integrated Drought Management Programme in Central and Eastern Europe was held on 8-9 April in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
This spring the University of Manchester will offer a new Massive Online Open-Access Course (MOOC) on water and sanitation policy in developing countries. The course starts May 26th and is free and open to everyone. The GWP Technical Committee has endorsed this MOOC.
The Regional Secretariat of GWP Eastern Africa assisted with technical and financial support to a meeting in Mogadishu to launch a Somalia Country Water Partnership on 29th January 2014. As a result of the meeting, Somalia is soon set to join GWP by establishing a Country Water Partnership.
Decades of underinvestment led to poor water and wastewater services and low coverage in Manila. Due to this poor service, the government was unable to increase its water tariffs due to customers’ unwillingness to pay. This situation translated into very low cash flows for the government, thus leading again to the issue of underinvestment, which soon turned to a vicious cycle.
A workshop was held in Niamey on May 29, 2015 to validate the study on 'Analysis of the results of national consultations and elaboration of the preliminary proposal of the agreement on the establishment of the framework and coordinating mechanism for political dialogue in the Mekrou basin planning process ''.
This workshop brought together about 40 people who validated the document by highlighting the context of Niger.
The Mediterranean water community has traditionally been very active at the World Water Forum, the global water community’s largest regular interface with an outreach to actors outside the water box, strongly voicing core messages and highlighting experiences from the region. This contribution has been systematically concretized for each Forum through a dedicated Mediterranean Cross-Continental Preparatory Process.