The seventh regional workshop for capacity building of women and men in the media in West Africa was held from 1st to 5th July 2013 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. «Water Financing and the protection of the resource in West Africa" was the topic of this annual event attended by 35 journalists from 12 ECOWAS countries plus Mauritania. It was jointly organized by Global Water Partnership in West Africa (GWP-WA) and the West and Central Africa Regional Office of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN-PACO).
Encouraged by regional developments, Mali initiated the process to implement IWRM. This was done in three stages: 1) a project team and a Steering Committee were set up to define the management and steering framework of the project, 2) a situation analysis was developed and discussed with broad stakeholder groups and 3) a provisional Action Plan was prepared. This case study illustrates the key moments and events of the process of elaboration of the IWRM.
The Murray-Darling Basin was subjected to widespread environmental degradation. In response to this problem, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission was established in January 1988 under the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement, focusing on protecting and improving water quality. The key lesson is that the participatory approach used with its Community Advisory Committee has helped the Commission to be successful in winning and maintaining community interest, involvement and support.
GWP-WA and IUCN / PACO Media capacity building Workshop: natural and human imbalances impact on sustainable development in mining areas
Mining in West Africa while contributing to economic and social development of the countries, disrupts the natural and human balance raising questions about the risk it poses to the future life of communities living near mining sites. This is the observation made by a group of journalists from West and central Africa participing in a subregional media capacity building workshop , co-organized by the West and Central Africa Programme of the IUCN (IUCN / PACO) and the Global Water Partnership for West Africa (GWP / WA). The meeting held from 1 to 5 October 2012 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on the theme "Mining and the Protection of environment and natural resources in West Africa.
Today water stress is a major concern in many urban areas. The core aspect of urbanisation is the rapid urban population growth together with inadequate planning, pollution, poverty, competing demands on the resource, all contribute to water stress: and consequently the urban water consumption is likely to double by 2025. Climate change is expected to cause significant changes as well in precipitation patterns which will affect the availability of water and induce water related disasters.
A regional workshop to review and finalize the project document on the "Dialogue on the Concerted Management of Groundwater in West Africa" was held from 10 to 12 July 2013 in Koudougou, Burkina Faso.
The San Juan River waters have experienced deterioration due to poor management of its basin. To address the issues, action has been taken to implement IWRM to address the areas of water, soil, forests and municipal development in a cross-sectoral manner. This case study is a good reminder of the integrated nature of IWRM, and the importance of a model that accounts for management of both water and land.