The management of water resources in Bangladesh involves a centralised, heavy engineering approach in order to control floods and install irrigation, however, there is now a pressing need for ensuring social justice and equity in water resource development. Recognising the role of water in poverty alleviation, action has been taken to implement a 25-year National Water Management Plan. Although this is one important step, it is evident that many issues require more work.
Social equity is the least understood of the 3 E’s (equity, economic efficiency and environmental sustainability) in the concept of integrated water resources management. This new Global Water Partnership Technical Committee Background Paper No. 15, “Social Equity and Integrated Water Resources Management”, sets out an overarching framework for the analysis of equity in the context of water development and management. It is intended as an aid to decision makers in designing policies, interventions, and programs aimed at the equitable distribution of benefits from water resources.
GWP Caribbean (GWP-C) and GWP Mediterranean (GWP Med) are building awareness on the importance of water conservation by implementing rainwater harvesting techniques. With islands surrounded by salt water, the rainwater harvesting model is critical for access to fresh water in both regions.
A multi-stakeholders' consultation on “Issues of governance in the water sector” was organized recently by the India Water Partnership (Global Water Partnership - India) in association with Transparency International India (TII) on June 18 at New Delhi.
The water sector in South Africa is dynamic and facing major challenges such as reduction in capacity of the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) to engage as extensively with stakeholders. As a result of a weak partnership base, it has been difficult to ensure the implementation of equitable and sustainable IWRM. Although a South African Country Water Partnership (SA CWP) was launched in 2002, and was active in early GWP activities such as the Framework for Action (FFA) over the years the sense of purpose for a partnership among water actors diminished as the water sector changed it’s strategic dimensions. One of the challenges that the SA CWP of the Global Water Partnership faced was defining exactly what its role in South Africa would be and how it would partner with other Water sector stakeholders to ensure that it executes its tasks and achieves success.
Improving the governance and economic value of drilling
Due to temporal and spatial variability of rainfalls, Sri Lanka experience local scarcity. Furthermore, most water resources are used for irrigation, and little is left for industry and domestic use. Action was taken towards policy reform but these reforms were, however, nationally desired but externally designed, leading to failure since they did not account for the Sri Lankan context. This case study thus illustrates the crucial importance of national anchoring of policies.
As a key step in the overall process of implementing the Water and Climate Development Programme (WACDEP), a rapid capacity needs assessment in Africa was launched on Tuesday, 23 April 2013. The assessment will initially target eight countries and five river basins/aquifer systems currently implementing WACDEP: Burundi, Rwanda, Burkina-Faso, Ghana, Cameroon, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique; Limpompo Basin, Kegera Basin, Lake Chad Volta Basin and the North Western Sahara Aquifer System.
In 2000, GWP developed the IWRM ToolBox. Broadly defined, the ToolBox consists of a wide range of materials such as case studies and reference documents dealing with water resource management.
Enabling Delta Life, a collaborative initiative on water management and governance in deltas between the Global Water Partnership and the Delta Alliance, was officially launched on 29 August 2012 at the seminar “Managing the World's Deltas: Unique Systems, Unique Challenges” at the World Water Week in Stockholm.