The World Water Congress kicked off in Scotland yesterday (May 25th, 2015). Since 1973, the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) has held a World Water Congress every three (3) years in various locations around the world.
The Indus River is a major transboundary river in Asia with nine tributaries. The River is about 2,800km long, with 2,682 km in Pakistan. The Indus drainage basin covers an area of about 1,140,000 km2 stretching from Afghanistan through China, India, and Pakistan. Monsoonal rains are the most important flood-causing factor in the Indus basin, followed by the size, shape, and land-use of the catchments as well as the conveyance capacity of the corresponding streams. The monsoon rains fall from June to September, and are generally intense and widespread.
In 2014 GWP Philippines carried out advocacy work to promote Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), targeting the youth and local government officials and other concerned stakeholders.
As part of GWP’s outreach to its Partners, a GWP IWRM ToolBox workshop was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 22-23 April 2015. The workshop was targeted at universities from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, whose staff educate specialists in water management or related fields and sectors.
The Director of the National Water Agency of Brazil, Gisela Forattini, who is also a GWP Steering Committee member, introduced the GWP Gender Strategy at the Governmental Forum of Social Responsibility held on 18 September in Brazil.
From 29th to 30th September, 2015 the meeting of the “Taskforce” for the development of central Africa regional hdyro-meteorological strategy was held in Douala, Cameroon. It was organized by the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in collaboration with GWP-CAf.
In addition to ECCAS and GWP-CAf’s experts, the meeting was attended by national experts in meteorology and hydrology from Cameroon, Congo, Chad, DR Congo, Gabon and Sao Tomé é Principe as well as representatives of UNESCO and Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC).
The “Taskforce” meeting planned during a working visit conducted by GWP-CAf to Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in July 2015, enabled experts to better understand the regional hydrometeorological strategy elaboration process and approve the regional synthesis report of baseline studies for National Hydrological and Meteorological Services conducted in six (6) pilot countries in Central Africa. The road map for the development of regional hydro meteorological services strategy in Central Africa was also discussed and approved.
It is a mandatory trend in China to develop hydropower. The key issues and solutions are concentrating on a sustainable development of hydropower resources with less damage to ecosystem, which can act as a unique part in the development of renewable resources of China as well as in the economic and social progress of river basins and regions.
Based on country studies on Local Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (LIKSP) and how they contribute to enhancing climate resilience in each of the 14 countries in the SADC region, Qandelihle Simelane (regional consultant of LIKSP studies) gave a regional summation from country studies undertaken in the region during the 6th SADC River Basin Organisations (RBOs) Workshop held from the 15th to the 17th of October 2014 at Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa under the theme “Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Resilience in Water Related Disasters.”
On the occasion of International Women’s Day (8 March), Global Water Partnership has interviewed women in the water community across the Network on their journey to become successful in their professions, how to overcome obstacles they face as women, and also recommendations to other women.