"The Mékrou Project, which will test and correct our various national tools for integrated management of water resources is a vast field of institutional, technical and technological innovations and scientific research in order to better understand the resource and establish a real sustainable plan for its use." It is in these terms that the Secretary General of the Ministry of Water, Water Facilities and Sanitation of Burkina Faso, Mr. Ali TRAORÉ, spoke at the official launch of the project. He expressed himself on behalf of the Honourable Minister and noted the importance of the new project on March 18, 2014 in Ouagadougou.
The Global Water Partnership is among the organising stakeholders
The Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources at the United Nations University, and the Technical University of Dresden, along with the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development, are organizing the Dresden Nexus Conference between 25-27 March 2015, in Dresden, Germany.
During the first quarter of 2013, CWP-Benin was busy with the final work (technical and financial reports, project final report; capitalization report) of the Multiannual program to support Water and sanitation sector (PPEA) phase I implemented by CWP-Benin which was completed in December 2012. Similarly, the CWP has also participated actively in the formulation and the launching of phase 2 of the program which will run over three years from 2013 to 2015.
Thirteen years after it was first launched, GWP’s online database IWRM ToolBox gets a facelift. It is not the first time a change is made, but it is the most radical. The new version, now integrated with the main GWP website, has more features and is easier to navigate.
A special day session was organized on May 5, 2015 just before the Partners meeting held on 7 and 8 May 2015 in Cotonou, Benin. The session aimed at all the representatives of Country Water Partnerships (CWP) invited for the Assembly of Partners but focused mainly on countries where the three projects are being carried out: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Niger.
GWPO has helped GWP-WAf secretariat to get an alternative power source based on solar energy technology to supplement it needs in Energy. The secretariat is based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso where power cuts are very frequent during the hottest period of the year, from March to June every 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 Veluwe Randmeren lakes in the Netherlands were negatively affected by the discharge of phosphates and nitrates from agriculture and household use. Furthermore, increase in population pressure posed further challenges. To address these issues, a group consisting of national and local authorities undertook a project, which gradually increased the water quality. The case study demonstrates the importance of allowing integration among stakeholder groups.
At the end of last year, the GWP network consisted of 13 Regional Water Partnerships, 84 Country Water Partnerships, and 2,904 Partners located in 172 countries. The Annual Report for 2013 is now completed and available online.