To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (ICWC) among Central Asian countries, a Central Asian International Research and Practice Conference took place 20-21 September 2012 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to discuss past experience and future challenges of water cooperation in the region. GWP Central Asia and Caucasus, which celebrated its 10 years at the conference, has been instrumental in regional water cooperation and took active part in the conference.
Costa Rica has made significant progress in the past decade in expanding access to water supply and sanitation, but the sector still faces challenges in low sanitation connections, poor service quality, and low cost recovery. GWP Costa Rica is organizing workshops as part of a consultation process to be carried out from November 2012 through January 2013 for the elaboration of the Water Agenda 2013-2030.
GWP Executive Secretary Dr Ania Grobicki participated in a meeting of the Integrated Flood Management HelpDesk,with WMO and other Support Base Partners (SBPs) in Geneva on 4 and 5 October - to discuss achievements so far and what can be done in the future. Since the HelpDesk´s launch in June 2009, 26 requests from 14 countries have so far been received, and dealt with in various different ways depending on the level of the request.
This year's World Water Week takes place in Stockholm 1-6 September 2013.
In 2010, the Togo Parliament passed a new water law that embraced IWRM principles. Adoption of an IWRM plan to turn words into action is pending. These milestones on the path to better water management were achieved in part as a result of sustained effort by GWP Togo.
‘Closing the Knowledge Gap: Integrated Water Resources Management for Sustainable Agriculture’ was the theme of an international seminar in Johannesburg, South Africa, November 22-26, 2010, which sought to discuss strategies for developing comprehensive information and knowledge support systems in integrated water management for productive agriculture in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states.
Uganda is faced with water scarcity, deteriorating water quality, floods and droughts, issues which are all negatively impacting Uganda's quest for economic and social development. The situation has, however, been improving with the launch of a Water Action Plan which promotes IWRM as an integral part of its strategy. Examining this case clearly illustrates that long term sustainability aspects such are often overlooked and instead, the focus is on short term domestic provision.
The Dialogue Workshop on Water Resources Protection and Emergency Response Mechanisms of Water Pollution of Yellow River was co-organized by the GWP China Yellow River for deep discussion about the experiences of river protection, current challenges of water resources management and protection, emergency responses of river basin pollution and problems of emergency response mechanisms.