Global Water Partnership Southern Africa attended training on the application of Environmental Flows in the management of transboundary river basins in Southern Africa, with a special focus on the Pungwe River Basin. The training which brought together about 20 participants was an IUCN initiative and was held from 30th November to 3rd December in Cape Town, South Africa. The main parties involved were the government representatives of both Mozambique and Zimbabwe who share the river Basin and therefore needed to come together and agree on the Environmental Flows requirements to ensure equitable socio-economic development and growth.
Given the importance of WRCC in coordinating water resource management in West Africa in particular and that of ECOWAS generally politically and economically, and because of the many joint initiatives underway, GWP / WA met with the Director of WRCC, Ibrahim Babatunde WILSON. The GWP delegation led by its Chair, Prof. Afouda, included the Executive Secretary and the Mekrou and IDMP projects officers.
The two organizations raised a number of initiatives underway at GWP / WA of which WRCC is an integral part, including the Mekrou project, IDMP, or those in which the WRCC should take the lead like the initiative on the regional dialogue on the joint management of shared aquifers in West Africa.
Márton Czikkely, Tamás Gergely Iványi and Tamás Márkus from Városmajori Grammar School won Hungarian Final of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize on 30 May 2015 with a project "The Secrets of Drinking Water".
The Integrated Drought Management Project in West Africa (IDMP-WA) made its internal assessment of the first year of project implementation and discussed the existing national plans during a meeting.
The meeting, held in Ouagadougou from 8 to 10 December 2015 was an opportunity to discuss the main actions undertaken during the first year of implementation of the project. Among these actions the review in detail of the initiatives / institutions in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and at regional level, starting the establishment of national and regional platforms of exchanges on integrated drought management, the development by CWP and their partners of demonstration project documents, the identification of training needs for stakeholders and also the preliminary exchanges with the ECOWAS/WRCC to advocate for the development of regional guidelines ondrought.
1. Mekrou Project is studying the impact on the W Park
A study is being carried by the Country Water Partnership of Benin to collect ecnomic data on the visitors of the W Park that covers part of the Mekrou Basin. The assessment is initiated by the Joint Research Center (JCR) with the support of GWP West Africa.
Among the knowledge products the Water, Climate and Development programme of GWP Central America worked on in 2014, are the analysis for the promotion of water security through no/low regrets investments in climate change plans and strategies at the country level.