The Municipality of Talcahuano because of rapid urbanisation is subjected to natural resource degradation. Action was taken and a municipal strategy was created, assigning the municipality as the institution in charge of administering and combating natural resource degradation. This case illustrates the appropriateness of the municipal level of government in successfully addressing the recovery of water resources and environmental management.
The Veluwe Randmeren lakes in the Netherlands were negatively affected by the discharge of phosphates and nitrates from agriculture and household use. Furthermore, increase in population pressure posed further challenges. To address these issues, a group consisting of national and local authorities undertook a project, which gradually increased the water quality. The case study demonstrates the importance of allowing integration among stakeholder groups.
The entire Global Water Partnership (GWP) network is commemorating 2013, the United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation, with the launch of a publication entitled “Water: Catalyst for Cooperation.”
Rwanda is located in eastern Africa, and is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congoto the west, UgandaTanzania to the east, and Burundi to the south. It lies a few degrees south of the equator and is landlocked.
The Intersectoral roundtable "Country Consultations on Water Speak to post-2015 Agenda" was held on 7 March 2014 in Dushanbe at the Institute of Water Problems, Energy and Environment of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan. The roundtable was organized by CWP-Tajikistan jointly with the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan under support of GWP CACENA.
The water resources of Brazil are subjected to pollution and mismanagement. Furthermore, it is susceptible to urban flooding and land-slides. To address these issues, action was taken to increase funding to the National Water Agency. In terms of IWRM, the key lesson learnt is the need for strong and well-funded executive agencies capable of putting laws into practice.
Rural and peri-urban areas are often neglected when making infrastructure investments. However, these areas could gain from treatment of domestic wastewater through the construction of wetlands. In Bulgaria, the problem of wastewater treatment was addressed through the construction of a wetland for treating wastewater from domestic sources. The lesson learnt is the importance of community initiatives.
Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe (GWP CEE) organized an innovative session on stakeholder involvement in water resource management at European River restoration Conference (ERRC) 2014 in Vienna on 29 October 2014.
On 29 October 2014 the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan organized an international conference “Development of Cooperation in the Aral Sea Basin to Mitigate Consequences of the Environmental Catastrophe” in Urgench, Uzbekistan.
In Chile, water has been privatised. However, in order to make sure that access was still available to all strata of society, the privatisation was accompanied by a robust regulatory framework, including a system of direct subsidies for drinking water consumption and sewage services for low income households. This case thus illustrates that in case of privatisation, a direct subsidiary scheme should be considered.