For many businesses, issues of water scarcity are becoming increasingly relevant to their activities, manifested as increased costs or difficulties to obtain water as users compete for rights. To understand water dependencies in time and space, many companies apply the measure of water footprint, estimating water use throughout the value chain. Using this measure can give important insights into variation between countries in terms of how much of the water relates to production.
Situated west of Senegal, Cape Verde is a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. The climate is temperate with warm dry summers. The precipitation is meager and erratic. The terrain is volcanic with one active Volcano (Fogo) which last erupted in 1995. Cape Verde is rich in salt, basalt rock, limestone, kaolin, fish, clay and gypsum.
Come and join us for some celebrations, on the 19th of February, in Jinja around our great river!
Despite high water availability in Jamaica, uneven distribution in both time and space creates local scarcity. Hence, it is problematic to distribute water adequately to all sectors, and to develop abstraction points for water treatment. To address the issues, action was taken and a Water Sector Reform was proposed, including a Water Sector Strategy and Action Plan. From this experience, the lesson learned is the importance of coordinating activities and harmonising policies, legislation and institutions.
Steadily shrinking for decades due to unsustainable irrigation policies, the Aral Sea is under increasing pressure, making both allocation and availability major challenges. Action has been taken and the Basin Economic Allocation Model has been developed as a long-term decision support system to facilitate putting “value on water use”. This demonstrates that economic models can be applied to assess economic value maximization of different water uses.
Scientific and estuarine research on the Chesapeake Bay pinpointed several areas that required attention including nutrient over-enrichment, dwindling underwater Bay grasses, and toxic pollution. Action was taken and the Chesapeake Bay Commission was established to address the issues. This case illustrates how the use of modelling can be a cost-effective tool in helping to implement watershed restoration actions and monitor goals set by stakeholders.
The GWP SEA 24th SC Meeting was held in Phnom Penh-Cambodia, on 10-11 April 2012.
Mr. Árpád Göncz President of Hungary between 1990 and 2000 and patron of GWP CEE during the early 2000's celebrated his 90th anniversary on 10 February 2012.