On 12-19 May 2013 the Republic of Armenia hosted 11th European Youth Parliament for Water on “Water Resource Management”.
Up to 300 participants from more than 30 countries were gathered for the Gender, Water and Development Conference, 7-11 November in East London, South Africa. The conference is organised as a step towards an on-going journey to change equality, equity and development in the water sector.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (ICWC) among Central Asian countries, a Central Asian International Research and Practice Conference took place 20-21 September 2012 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to discuss past experience and future challenges of water cooperation in the region. GWP Central Asia and Caucasus, which celebrated its 10 years at the conference, has been instrumental in regional water cooperation and took active part in the conference.
The Murray-Darling Basin was subjected to widespread environmental degradation. In response to this problem, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission was established in January 1988 under the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement, focusing on protecting and improving water quality. The key lesson is that the participatory approach used with its Community Advisory Committee has helped the Commission to be successful in winning and maintaining community interest, involvement and support.
“Water is a thread that runs through every development sector. The land and water of Sri Lanka is our oil and our gold… We can no longer afford to make water a sectoral matter. We cannot make it someone else’s business.” These were some of the comments made by Ms Kusum Athukorala, Chair of the Sri Lanka Water Partnership at a felicitation ceremony conducted to honour her achievement on receiving the bi-annual Women in Water Award presented by the International Water Association.
The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), the Caribbean Council for Science and Technology (CCST), the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), The University of the West Indies (UWI), the Trinidad and Tobago Film Company (TTFC) and Columbus Communications Trinidad Limited (FLOW) have launched the 2nd Caribbean Science and Agriculture Film and Video Competition targeting young professionals. The theme of this year’s competition is “Adding Value to Local Foods.”
GWP Eastern Africa used a recent conference to showcase GWP's philosophy, its current drive to mobilise collective efforts towards climate change adaptation and the role youth can play in lessening the effects of climate change in Eastern Africa.
For many businesses, issues of water scarcity are becoming increasingly relevant to their activities, manifested as increased costs or difficulties to obtain water as users compete for rights. To understand water dependencies in time and space, many companies apply the measure of water footprint, estimating water use throughout the value chain. Using this measure can give important insights into variation between countries in terms of how much of the water relates to production.
AMCOW President, Minister for Water Resources and Irrigation, Egypt and GWP Executive Secretary launch the Technical Background Document on World Water Week, 27 August 2012.