Comment by Alex Simalabwi, Global Water Partnership Senior Network Officer and Climate Change Focal Point.
A successful Capacity Building Workshop on “Flood Management in a Transboundary Context” was organized on the 13th and 14th of December in Zagreb, Croatia, under the Petersberg Phase II / Athens Declaration Process by the Global Water Partnership- Mediterranean (GWP-Med) with the support of the German Ministry of Environment and GEF IWLEARN.
10-11 December 2011 Almaty, Kazakhstan
The Council Meeting was hosted by CWP Kazakhstan. The RC meeting was attended by all eight Council members and some regional TEC members from all eight countries, and regional Secretariat. The following issues were discussed during meeting:
The Maltese Islands have limited freshwater resources and depend heavily on desalination. Therefore there is an evident need to mobilise non conventional Water Resources (NCWR) in order to secure water availability and facilitate sustainable development.
Slovenia is a diverse country with a multitude of cultures and people, enriched by its vast water resources.
Landlocked Hungary is situated within the heart of the Danube Basin. With few exceptions all rivers come from outside the national borders.
Estonia lies along the Baltic Sea, just south of Finland and has a climate of icy, snowy winters and long light summers.
Lithuania has an estimated population of 3.2 million as of 2011, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius.
In Ukraine, lack of permanent access to clean drinking water is an important environmental, as well as a health issue, which is one of the most water deficient countries in Europe with less then 1,000 m3 per capita per year.
The DIKTAS Project (2010 – 2014) is initiated by the aquifer-sharing states and is a full-size GEF regional project, implemented by UNDP and executed by UNESCO. The activities of the project focus on Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro. Several other countries and international organizations have also joined this challenging project and provide valuable contribution to realisation of its objectives.