The Mekong is the longest river in Southeast Asia, beginning its 4,200 km journey in the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau, passing six countries and reaching the South China Sea. Policy reforms to adopt integrated water resources management had been initiated and water related laws had been developed. However, there were still major gaps in the supporting knowledge and information. IUCN and its program Water &Nature Initiative (WANI) supported to scale up so called Tai Baan research (villagers’ research) that enabled local communities to represent their own social reality and through media and public forum, this knowledge can be mainstreamed into water management research and implementation.
The 11th edition of the Festival on the Niger was held from 4 to 8 February 2015 in Segou, Mali. This cultural event on the Niger River has become one of the flagship events of Mali. The theme for this year was "Culture and Employment: What cultural industry for Africa?». The night of the balafon, Festival on the Niger over the river, cultural caravan for peace, concerts on the river, the Segou symposium, professional artistic encounters, visual arts, theater and dance, international fair of Segou, Boromo of puppets Burkina Faso and the assistance of culinary art. These were the main activities that marked this event.
There is a need for stakeholders to be organized, capacitated and empowered in order to be effectively involved in decision-making processes in the development and management of shared water resources, improved climate resilience, poverty alleviation and ensuring that water resources are secure. With that objective in mind, GWP SA through the Namibia Water Partnership conducted its first training workshop aimed at broadening stakeholder participation in Transboundary Water Resources Management in the Orange – Senqu basin.
The 1st Regional Conference of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled project Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector was organised on 28-30 October 2014, in Athens, Greece, by the Global Water Partnership- Mediterranean (GWP-Med), in close collaboration with the EU funded Sustainable Water Integrated Management-Support Mechanism (SWIM-SM) project. It convened more than 110 decision makers; representatives of government; civil society; the private sector; international organisations; donors and financing institutions.
Due to the growing build-up area and changing land use in the Veluwe nature conservation area, the old water management infrastructure no longer coped. Action was thus taken and the traditional technical solution was replaced by a new integrated approach, which combines nature and landscape conservancy with modern water management. This case highlights the importance of utilising inhabitants’ knowledge when drafting new projects.
Mauritius joined the other SADC countries in providing input to the 4th phase of the Regional Water Programme by holding a workshop in the context of the SADC Water Week on 3 and 4th June 2015. The meeting held at Voilà Hotel in Bagatelle was opened by Mr. Ivan Collendavallo, Minister of Energy and Public Utilities, and attended by 60 stakeholders from the water sector, supporting sectors, media and youth.