The 2012 World Water Week takes place on 26-31 August 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden. This year's theme is "Water and Food Security".
The cost of managing water resources to reach social, economic and environmental goals is increasing due to increased demands from urbanisation, population growth and climatic threats – to name but some of the future challenges.
Burundi is a landlocked state, bordered by Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania. The climate is equatorial which, due to considerable altitude variation, results in a great variety of mean temperature across the country. There are two wet seasons (February to May and September to November), and two dry seasons (June to August and December to January). Burundi has large deposits of e.g. nickel, uranium, rare earth oxides, peat, cobalt, copper and platinum.
The climate in Somalia is mainly arid to semi-arid, with an average annual daytime temperature of 27ºC. Somalia is located in an extreme water scarce area, where most of the available water resources exist in rivers shared with neighboring countries and demand for water is increasing due to the population and urban growth.Somalia is lacking, not only easily available water resources, both also the human and financial resources to set up institutions and water infrastructures that are desperately needed.
Ukraine, situated by the Black Sea is bordering Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia. It is the second largest country in Europe, placed in the crossroads between Europe and Asia, giving it a very strategic position. The climate is temperate continental (although Mediterranean in the southern Crimean coast). The precipitation is disproportionally distributed being the highest in west and north; summers are warm across the country. Most of Ukraine consists of fertile plains and plateaus. In terms of natural resources, it is among other materials rich in iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas and oil.
Lithuania is located in Eastern Europe, bordering Belarus, Poland and the Baltic Sea, between Latvia and Russia. It has a transitional climate, between maritime and continental with wet moderate winters and summers. Lithuania has a great amount of small lakes, scattered around its territory. Rich in peat, arable land and amber.
Latvia is located in Eastern Europe, bordering Belarus, Russia and the Baltic Sea, between Estonia and Lithuania. Latvia has a maritime climate with wet moderate winters. The country is rich in peat, limestone, timber and arable land.
Deltas, where the river meets the sea, are dynamic and productive systems where people live and have built civilizations for millennia. Throughout the world they host dense populations and are important centers of food production, livelihoods and industry. These confluences of the sweet and the salty waters are of great ecological significance, featuring wetlands of high and unique biodiversity. Wise management of deltas is crucial for the integrity of ecosystems, economic well being and poverty alleviation.
The MENA-OECD Governance Programme would like to announce the launching of the
"Young Mediterranean Leaders Initiative", on the proposal of the European Training Foundation (EFT), and with the support of the European Group for Public Administration and the College of Europe.
New case study presents experiences from drafting groundwater management plan on trans-boundary river basin level in Hungary and Slovakia.