The United Nations' (UN) World Water Day is held on March 22nd each year to focus attention on critical water issues.
Uganda is currently experiencing rapid depletion of water resources, which, in addition to ecological challenges, is leading to conflicts in some parts of the country. The Ugandan government has taken action and formulated policies and policy regimes to regulate land use and impacts on the environment. Despite the existence of laws and regulations, this case study illustrates the discrepancy between policy formulation and the reality of implementation on the ground.
Water and energy are inseparable. To draw attention to the links between water and energy, GWP has released a new video about the theme of World Water Day 2014.
The Conference was held at VNIIGiM named by A.N.Kostyakov (Moscow) on the 8th of November 2013. The Conference was organized by OAO “Vodstroy”, the Russian Union of Water and Land Reclamation Professionals, VNIIGiM named by A.N.Kostyakov (Moscow) and the Scientific-Information Center of ICWC (NWO EECCA Secretariat, Tashkent). This event was supported by GWP CACENA and UNECE (through the RF grant).
A large proportion of Brazil’s population is lacking access to water and sanitation, and development is slow, in particular in rural areas due to lack of funds and political will, but also due to inefficiency in the resources allocation. Action has been taken by the State of Ceará to implement the model called Integrated Rural Water Supply and Sanitation System, illustrating that the most important component of attaining sustainable management is user participation.
The Upper Tisza basin requires international cooperation for its management, recognised through bilateral agreements. To further improve management, action was taken to develop a complex joint flood and water management development plan. This project is being implemented in several stages, ranging from elaboration of methods, description of ecological status to the establishment of environmental objectives to improve the current status. The key lesson is the value of bilateral effort in water management.
A one day workshop brought together around 20 journalists from various media houses and freelance journalists in The Gambia at the end of July. The topic was the ratification process of the 1997 United Nations Watercourses Convention, and how journalists can contribute to this process.
The Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP) in Central Asia and Caucasus aims to support countries to systemise their efforts on climate change adaptation and water security, promoting Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as a tool for climate-resilient development.
The most pressing problem facing the Songkhla Lake Basin is land degradation and water pollution caused by land use changes and shrimp farming expansion. Action was taken to combat these issues and an Integrated Environmental Management approach was applied. The key lesson of this case is that replacing blueprint master planning approaches with process oriented planning frameworks increased sustainability significantly.