In Central America there are 23 transboundary basins which represent approximately 36.9% of the territory. But in most there are no joint agreements for their management. That is why GWP Nicaragua and the Latin American Water Tribunal (TLA) coordinated the regional forum, "Water in Central America: Opportunities for conflict resolution."
The most pressing problem facing the Songkhla Lake Basin is land degradation and water pollution caused by land use changes and shrimp farming expansion. Action was taken to combat these issues and an Integrated Environmental Management approach was applied. The key lesson of this case is that replacing blueprint master planning approaches with process oriented planning frameworks increased sustainability significantly.
Global Water Partnership – Southern Africa (GWP-SA) will be hosting the 4th Water, Climate and Development Programme for Africa (WACDEP) Technical Coordination Workshop. The workshop will be held in Pretoria, South Africa from January 28-01 February 2013.
The WACDEP supports Regional Training Workshops for African Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to advance their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and the Regional Training Workshops on Economics of Adaptation, Water Security and Climate Resilience, Early Warning System of the African Union (AU) and the African Ministries Council on Water (AMCOW), the Global Water Partnership (GWP) in collaboration with UNDP-GEF, CDKN and CapNet will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:
In a series of consultative workshops held between August and December 2012, Rwanda and Burundi water and climate stakeholders pledged to support the successful implementation of the Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP) in the Lake Cyohoha transboundary water catchment.
In response to the drought and water shortage in the north of Chile, in 2012 several proposals were put forward to carry water from the central-south zone to the northern zone. Two projects, one French and the other Spanish, propose carrying water through the sea and across the land respectively.
Australia implemented a series of reforms to the water sector in the State of Queensland, including the use of a ‘whole of river basin’ strategic plan approach within which local resource operation plans are prepared and implemented. The key lesson learnt is that an incremental approach, with water planning developing in “bite-sized chunks” allowed government to be flexible in response to changing circumstances.
Water management in Kazakhstan was previously characterised by a command and control approach. The Water Code was adopted in 2003 as an answer to these problems. Furthermore, a project was launched to evaluate the current state of the legal framework for IWRM and to identify the potential for improvements and propose amendments to the Water Code. It is evident that IWRM is a complex approach and any amendments need to be done holistically.
One thing became clear at the Doha climate negotiations. As governments struggle to reach any agreement on climate mitigation, the urgency and importance of agreement on adaptation is now coming to the fore.