The quality of groundwater recharging the Guarani aquifer is threatened in some areas by rapid land-use changes, and locally by rapid urbanisation. Action was taken by the World Bank through a GEF-funded project on the ‘Sustainable Development & Environmental Protection of the Guarani Aquifer’, which included scientific studies, institutional provisions and transboundary groundwater management. This case study reinforces the lesson to ‘think globally but act locally’.
To supply water to a growing population, an aqueduct was built in the watershed of El Limón River in Tovar municipality. However, this aqueduct does not provide sufficient supply, creating conflicts among the communities. To solve these, agreements on the use and conservation of water resources have been made among the communities, involving both rural villages and urban areas. This illustrates the benefits of a participatory approach.
The Associated Programme on Flood Management (APFM) is a joint initiative of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Global Water Partnership (GWP). It promotes the concept of Integrated Flood Management (IFM). The programme has been financially supported by the governments of Japan, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. The APFM is being developed as a series of regional nodes, starting with Central Europe, South America, Central America, Southern Africa and South Asia.
In preparation for detailed implementation of the WACDEP and in order to scale up the programme activities to other WACDEP countries, the 2nd WACDEP Technical Coordination workshop was held on 9-11 May 2012 in Cairo, Egypt just before the Africa Water Week.
The Nile region relies heavily on its groundwater, nevertheless, it is often neglected in national water policies. However, efforts were made to integrate groundwater as an aspect of IWRM, predominantly through a proposal of relevant capacity building actions. These were categorised into three groups: groundwater governance, operational management and, analytical tools to support operational management, illustrating that the main focus should still be devoted on the institutional and regulatory frameworks and management instruments.
Lake Peipsi/Chudskoe is the largest transboundary lake in Europe. Action has been taken by riparian governments of Russia and Estonia to develop and sign an Agreement on the Protection and Sustainable Use of Transboundary Water Bodies. An intergovernmental commission was established to co-ordinate the implementation of this agreement. Co-operation over Lake Peipsi demonstrates how integrated water resource management tools can be applied to transboundary waters shared by countries in transition.
On World Water Day, the Global Water Partnership calls for increased cooperation to manage shared water resources.
To meet demand, the water sector of Lesotho is undertaking institutional reforms and tackling financial and technical constraints. Action was initiated through a study conducted in four phases including data collection, development options, financing strategy and integration of the findings. The project was carried out in through capacity building activities in cooperation with several stakeholders. Predominantly, this case study illustrates the importance of combining data from several authorities into one consistent format.
The New Senior Managers of Nile Basin Initiative Secretariat notably Engineer Teferra Beyene Asfaw, the Executive Secretary and Ms. Dorothy Kaggwa, Head of Strategic Planning and Management were briefed on the Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa (GWPEA) programmes, activities and working framework.