At a time of increasing water demand and the prospect of climate change, the problem of water scarcity in the Mediterranean region and in particular the Greek islands deepens and becomes more critical. Hence, there is an urgent need to enhance water efficiency and to explore further alternatives to ensure water availability using innovative approaches. The revival of traditional water harvesting and management techniques, which have been overlooked in favour of modern technologies, sometimes less sustainable, appears to be one of the most promising alternatives for supplying freshwater in the face of increasing water scarcity and escalating demand.
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.
Global Water Partnership (GWP) and the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, have agreed to establish a strategic partnership to jointly undertake work on climate resilience and WASH. The initial collaboration is for six months, with a potential continuation.
An e-module on IWRM was launched in 2012 after a lengthy a collaboration between several German institutions that had identified a gap in the field of integrated water resources management education. The development of the module continues, with GWP as a potential “catalyst” to generate further interest in the module.
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.
GWP China addressed issues connected to climate change, flood control and use of rainwater in a workshop held in Baoding, in the Hebei Province, on 26-27 November 2013.
The Water, Climate and Development Programme in South America has been developed to support the integration of water security and adaptation to climate change into development planning processes and investment, promoting Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as a key strategy.
In order to contribute to the comprehensive and sustainable economic development in the region, GWP Central America has launched the Water, Climate and Development Programme, a programme that will promote water security as a strategic adaptation to climate variability and change.