His Majesty King Mswati III's government through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy of Swaziland has joined the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in giving contributions to the fourth SADC regional water work programme. This three day event, held under the theme “from vision to Action” is being held from 27-29 May, 2015. The event is being held at Happy Valley in Ezulwini, Swaziland.
The national workshop to validate the results of three studies carried out on behalf of the Mékrou Project in Benin in 2014 was held on 8 and 9 January 2015 in Cotonou. These studies examined the reports on the National Consultation on the project objectives, on the participatory institutional diagnosis consultation with all major stakeholders and on the participatory assessment of existing capacity and needs in capacity building. This workshop is organized by the Country Water Partnership of Benin (Benin CWP), which, in collaboration with the Directorate General of Water (DG Water) and the National Water Institute (INE), coordinate the project in Benin, on behalf of GWP / WA.
A special day session was organized on May 5, 2015 just before the Partners meeting held on 7 and 8 May 2015 in Cotonou, Benin. The session aimed at all the representatives of Country Water Partnerships (CWP) invited for the Assembly of Partners but focused mainly on countries where the three projects are being carried out: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Niger.
Frederik Pischke joined GWP as a Programme Officer in the summer of 2013. He is part of the global GWP secretariat in Stockholm, but Frederik is based in Geneva, Switzerland. He works with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in a unique collaboration between GWP and WMO, with strong focus on floods and droughts. Frederik explains the background.
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.
GWPO has helped GWP-WAf secretariat to get an alternative power source based on solar energy technology to supplement it needs in Energy. The secretariat is based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso where power cuts are very frequent during the hottest period of the year, from March to June every year .
At the end of last year, the GWP network consisted of 13 Regional Water Partnerships, 84 Country Water Partnerships, and 2,904 Partners located in 172 countries. The Annual Report for 2013 is now completed and available online.
Reports of the devastation after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines are making headline news across the world, with estimates that up to 10,000 people have lost their lives, and numbers are rising. One of the most immediate needs is getting clean drinking water to the survivors.
From 19-23 May 2014, the GWPEA in partnership with the Kenya Water Partnership and the Nile IWRM Net organised a regional training workshop on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as a tool for adaptation to climate change. The training aimed to strengthen the capacities of the countries in the Nile Basin and regional organisations for understanding climate change impacts and develop and implement adaptation programmes.
On July 8, 2014, the Global Water Partnership China visited the School of Linzhi Agriculture of Tibet University and organized the conference to discuss the issues of water protection and water source management under the climate change.