At a regional meeting of the Uzbekistan Central Asia and South Caucasus Water Utilities Network (CASCWUN), held in Tashkent in March 2008, representatives of 14 water utilities from seven CACENA countries signed an agreement on the network’s statutes and a programme of joint activities for 2008–2009.
The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) issued a news release in September to announce the scientific results of the Joint Danube Survey 2 (JDS2) –“possibly the world’s biggest river research expedition ever.” The survey indicates that “the Danube and its tributaries are becoming cleaner,” said the release.
Sustainable Sanitation in Central and Eastern Europe: Addressing the Needs of Small and Medium-Size Settlements
Regional Center for Strategic Environmental Studies to host GWP Moldova
A regional process to save the Aral Sea has resulted in an “Action Plan for the realization of the Decisions of the Presidents” of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Since 2005, GWP Caribbean and one of its Partners, the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), have brought together ministers and other senior government officials every year to discuss water issues and explain the benefits of IWRM. At the last high-level session, in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, in October, these efforts bore fruit.
In December, 120 people, including members of parliamentary committees, director generals, representatives of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), other multilateral organisations, and international and local NGOs validated the Burundi IWRM Plan and demanded immediate implementation.
GWP Provincial Water Partnerships in Fujian, Hebei, Hunan and Shaanxi are key players in implementing two rural development policies – The Water Saving Society and The New Countryside Development.