This week in Midrand (9-13 November), South Africa, the Global Water Partnership's five Africa regional offices and its Mediterranean one are working with key allies to translate Africa's commitments on water into action. At the top of the agenda is financing water infrastructure, water supply and sanitation and climate change adaptation.
Since 2007, GWP and the EU Water Initiative Finance Working Group (EUWI-FWG) have worked together to organise workshops across the world to raise awareness and build capacity on financing for water and sanitation.
A report on the GWP Side Event at World Water Day 2011, Cape Town, South Africa
GWP Executive Secretary Dr Ania Grobicki participated in a meeting of the Integrated Flood Management HelpDesk,with WMO and other Support Base Partners (SBPs) in Geneva on 4 and 5 October - to discuss achievements so far and what can be done in the future. Since the HelpDesk´s launch in June 2009, 26 requests from 14 countries have so far been received, and dealt with in various different ways depending on the level of the request.
Agriculture: the major sector of water consumption
Intensive abstraction for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes has led to depletion of surface and groundwater bodies. Overexploitation of groundwater resources in particular, has led to seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers. Over the last 50 years, water demand for all sectors of activity together has doubled to reach 280 km3/ year in 2007.
Situated west of Senegal, Cape Verde is a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. The climate is temperate with warm dry summers. The precipitation is meager and erratic. The terrain is volcanic with one active Volcano (Fogo) which last erupted in 1995. Cape Verde is rich in salt, basalt rock, limestone, kaolin, fish, clay and gypsum.
At a GWP press briefing on 8 June 2010 at the UNFCCC climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany, GWP Executive Secretary Dr. Ania Grobicki called for water, climate and development to be integrated into the UNFCCC's work on adaptation.
Press release, 3 June 2010
A number of well known international organisations and research centers join forces to highlight the role of water in the context of climate change. The newly formed alliance, named the Water and Climate Coalition, is officially launched today at a side event at the climate talks in Bonn.