GWP Executive Secretary Dr Ania Grobicki participated in a meeting of the Integrated Flood Management HelpDesk,with WMO and other Support Base Partners (SBPs) in Geneva on 4 and 5 October - to discuss achievements so far and what can be done in the future. Since the HelpDesk´s launch in June 2009, 26 requests from 14 countries have so far been received, and dealt with in various different ways depending on the level of the request.
The challenges China is facing with the rapid growth of urban centres, and the corresponding demands on limited water and related resources, is immense. This is true on the Loess Plateau which covers an area of some 640,000 km² in the upper and middle of China's Yellow River. A workshop on “Efficient Use of Water Resources and Ecological Compensation” was co-organized by GWP China-Yellow River and the Yellow River Research Institute on 27-28 September 2010, in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.
On October 20, 2010 in Beijing, the WWF Beijing Office released the new book “The Management Practice on Rural Drinking Water Security Project in China” which was jointly edited by WWF and the Rural Drinking Water Safety Center of Ministry of Water Resources (MWR).
The Sino-Swiss Cooperation Dialogue was taken place in the office building of the Ministry of Water Resources on October 19, 2010.
The Fourth Wei River Forum was joint organized by the GWP China Shaanxi, Shaanxi Provincial Department of Water Resources and Wei River Management Bureau of Shaanxi Province in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province on October 13, 2010.
The Central and Eastern Europe region of the Global Water Partnership (GWP CEE) has called for pollution prevention and the regular inspection of polluter operations in light of the toxic sludge disaster in Hungary.
Most Mediterranean countries have embarked upon or are well underway water sector reform processes through the elaboration and/or update/revision of IWRM Plans and Water Strategies, with governance firmly placed at the centrepiece and IWRM forming the guiding framework.
The Workshop on Efficient Use of Water Resources and Ecological Compensation on Loess Pleteau of the Yellow River, co-organized by GWP China Yellow River and Yellow River Research Institute, was held on September 27 and 28, 2010, Zhengzhou, Henan Province.
Recently the GWP ToolBox, a free online database for those interested in better water management, has been improved with a number of new features and resources.