March 28, 2014, the Chinese Academy of Engineering organized the "Session on the Progress Report of the Programme on Collection of China’s Response Strategies of Drought and Flood” in Beijing. The participants were from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Civil Affairs, China Meteorological Administration, and other organizations, around 60 people in total attending the meeting.
Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Centre and GWP Ukraine organized National Dialogue on Drought Management on 10 December 2013 in Kiev.
The Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP SA) partnered with UNDP to follow up with a set of national dialogues on water. The water dialogues form part of the 11 thematic consultations now underway by the United Nations (UN) in preparation for developing Sustainable Development Goals (SD) in 2015. GWPSA engaged stakeholders from three countries to organise consultations during the months of February – April 2013. These are South Africa, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
The Regional Inter-University Knowledge Sharing Workshop kicked off in Uganda’s capital Kampala, December, 5th 2012, participants urged for sustainable water resources management as a means to reverse the continuing water scarcity in the region.
Le continent africain possède le plus grand nombre de bassins fluviaux transfrontaliers qui, collectivement, couvrent 64% de la superficie de l’Afrique et contiennent un peu plus de 93% de ses ressources en eau de surface. Même si une ressource en eau partagée est source potentielle de conflits, elle représente également un immense potentiel en termes de croissance économique du continent africain où, par exemple, moins de 4% de l’eau disponible est utilisée et moins de 7% du potentiel hydroélectrique est développé.
The United Nations has declared 2013 the International Year of Water Cooperation. The 2013 World Water Day, on 22 March 2013, is also dedicated to water cooperation.
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.
Read what is happening in Water Management in Southern Africa in our June 2013 edition of the “Water Dialogue – A forum for Partnership Action in Water Management in Southern Africa”
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Many climate change models predict that increasing temperatures, droughts, heavy precipitation and other extreme climatic events will have severe impacts on family farmers. Yields might be reduced by up to 50 percent in dry regions at the same time as family farming continues to be the basis unit of the agricultural economy in developing countries.