On January 12th, 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit a point 15 km southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It led to more than 230 000 deaths and significant physical destructions. The response actions were limited by the underlying vulnerabilities that existed in the country prior to the event and by a lack of coordination among decision-makers. This study intended to improve the understanding of policy-makers, water and sanitation practitioners and researchers on the actions that have been taken and their outcomes in the water and sanitation sector in Port-au-Prince. It revealed that weak governance coupled with poor infrastructure can result in catastrophic scenarios after the occurrence of a disaster.
Within the context of the partnership ECCAS-GWP signed in December 2013, a meeting held in Libreville, Gabon from 29th to 31st of July 2015 brought together the two parties.
The meeting aimed at assessing the progress made in the process of developing a regional strategy and action plan for hydrological and meteorological services in Central Africa on the one hand and take stock of the process of the creation and operationalization of the Regional Solidarity Fund for Water following the submission of the final document to ECCAS for validation on the other hand.
Aimed at integrating climate change considerations in water and soil conservation planning in Tunisia, the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med) has established, in the framework of its WACDEP Programme (Water, Climate and Development Programme), a very beneficial collaboration with the Department for Planning and Conservation of Agricultural Lands at the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture and the Regional Department for Agriculture in Bizerte, in Tunisia’s North.
A team of GWP-WA and CWP Burkina PNE had on June 11, 2015 a visit to assess the level of implementation of work on the site of the WACDEP demonstration project in Burkina Faso. This project involves the drip irrigation techniques for the efficient management of agricultural water for the benefit of vulnerable populations in the municipality of Loumbila in the center of the country.
Since the last visit in April 2015 there has been plowing work, the installation of some drip irrigation and water pumping equipment with solar energy, among others.
This third capacity-building workshop was held from 16 to 19 June 2015 and brought together participants from the Local Water Committee of North Massili, the Ministry of Animal Resources, General Directorate of Sanitation, Wastewater and Excreta, the Permanent Secretariat of the National Council for Environment and Sustainable Development, Nakanbé Water Agency and the Directorate of Water Resources.
One of the areas of advocacy that the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) promotes is Rainwater Harvesting (RWH). GWP-C advocates for safe RWH practices as a means of water augmentation, especially in light of climate related scenarios predicted for the Caribbean.
The Stockholm World Water Week 2015 will be taken place in Sweden throughout the week 23-28 August, 2015. This year marks a 25-year anniversary of the event, which is organised by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). The theme of the year is “Water and Development”.
“Improving water governance for achieving financial sustainability in the Mediterranean” is the topic of the event organised by Global Water Partnership - Mediterranean (GWP-Med), during the upcoming World Water Week in Stockholm, within the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled project ‘Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector’ and with the financial support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).