“One of the key activities of the Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP )program in Rwanda is integrating water security and climate resilience into national development planning and decision-making processes, particularly into budget policy”.
Professor John B.R. Agard held the GWP Annual Lecture at the Consulting Partners Meeting 2014 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, on 28 June. The topic was “Climate Change and Water”.
Many climate change models predict that increasing temperatures, droughts, heavy precipitation and other extreme climatic events will have severe impacts on family farmers. Yields might be reduced by up to 50 percent in dry regions at the same time as family farming continues to be the basis unit of the agricultural economy in developing countries.
The Upper Veda Project involves a dam that would submerge 14 villages. Opposing the project, the affected communities took action and urged for alternative solutions. The dam was eventually constructed, but the process was characterised by conflicts between the project authorities and the communities. This case illustrates that dam projects, which directly affect the livelihoods of large numbers of people, need to have developed a well defined rehabilitation plan prior to construction.
To drive the interest of Integrated Water Resources Management at the political level in the Caribbean, since 2005, the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) in collaboration with its partner, the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) host an Annual High Level Forum of Ministers (HLFM).
The Water, Climate and Development Programme in China has the objective to integrate water security and climate resilience in development planning processes, build climate resilience and support provinces to adapt to a new climate region through increased investment in water security.
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.
Global Water Partnership and the OECD have launched a joint project to establish a Global Dialogue on Water Security and Sustainable Growth. The major output of the cooperation will be a milestone report to be presented at the World Water Forum in 2015 in South Korea.