The Segura Basin in Spain is the driest in Europe. With 365 mm of annual rainfall, this basin has the lowest rainfall in the European Union. Nevertheless, it is also a region which exports fruit and vegetables. The Segura River is thus the main water sources for irrigation. In 1986, when Spain became a member of the European Union, the production of agriculture and canned food significantly increased. As a consequence, a rise in wastewater discharges and lack of water in the already water-stressed Segura River brought extreme deterioration of the water-related ecosystem and a strong social discontent.
A training of trainers capacity building workshop was held from 25 to 29 April 2016 on "drought risk reduction in the context of Integrated Water Resources Management" with the financial and technical support of Cap-Net. The course content focused on six (6) modules on Overview of drought / occurrence of droughts, vulnerability and IWRM (Module 1), Vulnerability and impacts of droughts (Module 2), Managing the risks of drought (Module 3), Characterization of droughts, temporal and special scale, monitoring and forecasting ((Module 4), Strategic Planning in IWRM for risk management of drought (Module 5), Preparing for drought, emergency management and post drought recovery (6. Module 6).
An onsite meeting was attended by the main actors involved in the implementation of the demonstration project in order to assess the progress.
As of April 29, 2015, IRRIFASO has completed the installation of drip irrigation system. They also tested the system with the existing pump on site. The conclusion is that the system is operating normally, the pressure achieved was 0.3 bar considered to be sufficient for such a system.
The Government of Malawi, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development assured that the Malawi government is working hard to address the challenges rocking the water sector in the country. Malawi hosted the SADC national week whose focus is on mainstreaming gender in water issues. The event was held from 13-15 May, 2015 at Crossroads Hotel, Lilongwe. The SADC Water Week, held under the theme “From Vision to Action” was attended by delegates from government ministries, civil society and the private sector.