In the Spanish National Strategy for River Restoration (NSRR, Estrategia Nacional de Restauracion de Ríos), it has been identified that most riparian environments do not possess environmental or ecological status. The restoration of the Orbigo river benefitted from the implementation of various Natural Water Retention Measures (NWRM), such as levee removal and setbacks, rip-rap removal, recovery of secondary channels, floodplain reclamation, and re-afforestation of the riparian zone with native species.
GWP participated in a meeting of the Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences (IANAS) in Lima 2-4 December 2013. The topic was urban water management, and the meeting enabled advances in the elaboration of the IANAS book “Urban water in the Americas”, to be launched later this year.
GWP SA was contracted by the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) to collaborate and lead in a project dealing with the development of knowledge products. The assignment involved packaging and targeting outputs of small scale infrastructure research undertaken in the Limpopo River basin between 2009 -2013.
GWP Central America organized a workshop for 25 municipal leaders and technical personnel of civil society that work on water issues. The event, which focused on risk management, took place in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on February 23-27.
The conclusions of a second round of national stakeholder consultations on water urge the global community to include a dedicated water goal within the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.
The “Financing of sustainable water resources management and development: economics, financing opportunities and project preparation” is the focus of high-level regional training and knowledge exchange in Pretoria, South Africa from the 21st -24th July, 2014. 27 Delegates from African countries and River Basin Organisations working in the water are meeting to increase their knowledge and skills, to attract investors and financial development partners for both water governance and water infrastructure development.
A presentation on “Financing water resources management and development for River Basin Organisations” was made during the 6th RBO Workshop held 15th to the 17th of October 2014 at Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg. The presentation is based on 13 country studies on “Financing Water Resource Management in SADC” which was commissioned by the SADC/GIZ Transboundary Water Resources Management Programme, to deepen the understanding of investments in water resources management and development and to create arguments to increase these investments in SADC countries.
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.
The Paris Climate Conference will take place in Paris in December 2015 (COP21). Governments, particularly sensitive to environmental and climate issues, are expected to commit the fate of the planet during the COP21.
The Minister of the City, Youth and Sports, Mr Patrick KANNER, also co-chairman of the board of OFQJ is actively acting to ensure that youth is also engaged in public policy for sustainable development.
The Ghana Country Water Partnership (CWP-Ghana) has held the validation meeting for the report on the study entitled “Impacts and Vulnerability assessment of Climate Change in the Upper East Region of Ghana and pathways to Creating Green Solutions and Integrating Climate-Smart Interventions into development Planning”. The program took place at the SSNIT conference room at Bolgatanga on 17th July, 2014 and was chaired by Mr Aduna from the White Volta Basin Office (WVB).
