China is at the heart of debates around the perceived trade-off between economic growth and environmental protection. Since the early 1990s, the country has experienced remarkable economic growth, lifting nearly 600 million people out of poverty and averaging a per capita GDP growth rate of 8.9%. The question of how to release water to growing urban areas and industries while continuing to increase farm production and rural incomes is therefore something of a political headache.Since 2000, the government’s desire to build an ‘ecological civilization’ has meant greater integration of economic development, environmental protection and poverty reduction in the country’s most important national planning documents and policy agendas. Promoting more efficient agricultural water use can encourage economic growth and is a good investment. China’s success in releasing water from its agricultural sector has allowed its industry and services to use the water saved to grow.
Two members of the WACDEP Reference Group Madam Patience Agyare- Kwabi, a Gender expert from Ghana and Dr. Roberto Martin-Hurtado, an Economist from the United Kingdom and team leader visited Burkina Faso and Ghana, the two West African countries where the WACDEP is being implemented.
It is a mandatory trend in China to develop hydropower. The key issues and solutions are concentrating on a sustainable development of hydropower resources with less damage to ecosystem, which can act as a unique part in the development of renewable resources of China as well as in the economic and social progress of river basins and regions.
As part of the preparation of a national workshop on Climate Services to provide priority areas defined by the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), GWP/WA participated to the national meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso initiated by the Coordinator of GFCS for the Sahel region.
GWP has published its Annual Report for 2014, highlighting network achievements across all regions. “2014 was a rich and inspiring year. We significantly increased the visibility of our growing network at the local, regional, and global level,” wrote GWP Chair Dr. Ursula Schaefer-Preuss in her introduction.
On 27-28 November 2014 the Global Forum on Environment: "New Perspective on the Water-Energy-Food-Nexus" was held in the OECD headquarters in Paris.
In line with the GWP strategic thematic area on urbanisation, GWP is collaborating with AfDB – Africa Water Facility and Partners to support the region and countries in Africa to address challenges related to water management in urban areas in cities in Africa. In view of this, a capacity building workshop on IUWM was held from 25th to 28th January in Abidjan, Ivory Coast aimed at contributing to the well-being of the urban population of Africa by improving water and wastewater services through the implementation of an integrated approach.
The 1st Regional Conference of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled project Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector was organised on 28-30 October 2014, in Athens, Greece, by the Global Water Partnership- Mediterranean (GWP-Med), in close collaboration with the EU funded Sustainable Water Integrated Management-Support Mechanism (SWIM-SM) project. It convened more than 110 decision makers; representatives of government; civil society; the private sector; international organisations; donors and financing institutions.
The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) of Trinidad and Tobago and the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, will host the first-ever Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Research Symposium in Trinidad on July 15th and 16th, 2015 at The University Inn and Conference Centre in St. Augustine.