“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 New Senior Managers of Nile Basin Initiative Secretariat notably Engineer Teferra Beyene Asfaw, the Executive Secretary and Ms. Dorothy Kaggwa, Head of Strategic Planning and Management were briefed on the Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa (GWPEA) programmes, activities and working framework.
The Rwanda-Burundi Transboundary Project in Bugesera Catchment themed “Water, Climate Change Development Program: Towards Water Security and Climate Resilience in Eastern Africa”, was held on 24th-25th July 2012, in Bugesera, borderline between Rwanda and Burundi.
The Nile Council of Ministers (NILE-COM) meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda on 5th July 2012, commended Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa (GWPEA) projects specifically Bugesera Transbandary Project implemented in the framework of WACDEP, and Adapting to Climate Change Induced Water Stress in River Nile Basin, a SIDA-UNEP funded project.
GWP participated in the “COP 11 of the RAMSAR Convention”, the 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Wetlands entitled “Wetlands: Home and Destination” on 5-10 July in the Parliament Palace in Bucharest.
Following on the series of successful regional workshops on Water Financing carried out in 2009 and 2010 by GWP and the EUWI in South America, the international seminar, "Water and Environmental Sanitation Financing" was held in Porto Alegre on June 11, organized by GWP Brazil in partnership with ABES-RS, the Brazilian Association for Sanitation and Environmental Engineering. Its aim was to identify and promote ways of funding water resources management.
To build a closer working relationship on knowledge sharing with universities, a workshop on the GWP Toolbox and IWRM Knowledge Centers was held in Stockholm on 25 August 2012. More than 16 lecturers and researchers from universities participated and shared experiences on teaching IWRM and other water resources-related areas, with examples of how the Toolbox can be applied.
GWP Malaysia and the Global Environment Centre co-organised a Regional Training of Trainers course on Ecosystem Services and IWRM on 18-21 June 2012. It was targeted to enable greater awareness and understanding on ecosystem management based on a holistic and sustainable manner aimed at empowering relevant stakeholders in Malaysia with knowledge and skills needed to adopt the ecosystem services concept.
The High Level Forum (HLF) is an unmatched regional event, being the only meeting of Caribbean Water Ministers to date. The HLF affords Ministers and senior officials involved in water resources management a unique opportunity to share experiences and ideas for addressing water issues affecting the region and individual countries.