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On March 31^st 2014, the Costa Rican Congress passed the new Water Law. For over a decade the Central American countries have been working on reforming their water legislative and institutional frameworks, and one of the pioneers in this process has been Costa Rica.

Limited land space, high population densities and population growth, coupled with increased urbanisation has led to a  decline in freshwater and coastal water quality in the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Caribbean.

A series of activities called The Great Walk for Water initiated by some NGOs will be held from 22 February to 22 March 2015 to draw the World attention on the future "disappearance" of Lake Chad, if nothing is done. This great walk for water is a media caravan, actions and multidisciplinary activities to advocate for an increased attention on the situation of National and International Watercourses in Africa in general and especially the Lake Chad.

Under Construction

In Benin, water use has not been regulated. Furthermore, water management has been sector-based, fragmented and compartmentalised. To change this, action was taken to initiate IWRM in Benin. A baseline study was done followed by drafting of an IWRM action plan. From the experience, the lesson learnt is that advocacy for strengthening political will for supporting the process must be seen as a transversal and on-going action throughout the whole IWRM process.

Water governance remains a key challenge in the Mediterranean. Efforts of countries focus on improving policies making and action planning, institutional settings, law and regulation, enforcement mechanisms, innovative financing, application of cost recovery and polluter pays principle, etc. To achieve sustainable models of development, water must be mainstreamed into other sectoral policies such as agriculture, land planning and use, energy, industry, tourism and trade. Political will is key for making these happen. The importance of cross-cutting issues, such as gender, equity, poverty and rights, is increasingly recognized but is still relatively poorly tackled.

The GWP’s annual Regional Days were took place in Stockholm from 10 to 13 May.

Country Water Partnerships organized the national consultations in Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia between 18-21 March 2014 in Sofia, Bucharest and Ljubljana while dates are pending for Poland.

The Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP) in Central Asia and Caucasus aims to support countries to systemise their efforts on climate change adaptation and water security, promoting Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as a tool for climate-resilient development.