As part of the two-day Meeting of Regional Partners in Water and Wastewater, the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C), the United Nations Environment Programme, Caribbean Regional Coordinating Unit (UNEP-CAR/RCU) and the Global Environment Facility’s Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management (GEF CReW) partnered to host a special Knowledge Sharing Session on New Tools and Resources for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the Caribbean.
Coinciding with the 2013 World Water Week in Stockholm, GWP presents three new policy briefs on critical water management issues. The topics are Integrated Urban Water Management, Transboundary Water Cooperation and the Economic Value of a Water Secure World.
To improve monitoring and management of river basins in Slovakia, a project was initiated among secondary school students with the objective to attract the attention of young generation to the protection of the river basin and to mobilise the interest of local communities in public campaigns to improve the quality of river basin. The key lesson drawn from this case study is that linking education activities and local communities campaigns are effective tool for public participation.
There were concerns that Lake Arenal in Northern Costa Rica was threatened due to problems of deforestation and possible premature sedimentation, leading the government to take action, resulting in successful national and local benefits in terms of energy produced and area irrigated. The most important lesson learned is the importance of consulting all parties involved before initiating the project to achieve the best result.
The Ruzinov Strkovec Lake has been subjected to severe pollution due to contaminated by illegal sewage pipes. The Association of Industry and Nature Protection took action and initiated and organised a project to both revitalise the lake and draw the attention of local people to its flora and fauna. The key lesson learnt is how the partnership between an NGO and municipality can result in a successful revitalisation of local water resources.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (November 29, 2013) – Seventy five representatives from 25 African countries attended the kick off Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop on the ‘Economics of Adaptation Water Security, and Climate Resilient Development’.
A programme of measures for forest adaptation, and for mitigating the negative effects of climate change, will be established in four GWP CEE countries, with the dissemination of results to policy- and decision-makers, stakeholders and NGOs.
The 1st Regional Conference of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled project “Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector” will be held on 28-30 October 2014, in Athens, Greece, in close collaboration with the EU funded “Sustainable Water Integrated Management - Support Mechanism” (SWIM-SM) project.
With the collapse of the USSR, the water sector seized to be subsidised leading to deterioration of basic infrastructure. Action was taken to partially transfer the responsibility for operation and maintenance of irrigation systems to water users. Nonetheless, this has had limited success because it has been seen as an additional cost rather than benefit. This illustrates that for this to work, the returned benefits need to be higher than the costs.