A National Consultation on Water in the Post-2015 Development Agenda organized by the Bangladesh Water Partnership, was held on 30 March 2013 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Fifty two participants from government and semi-government agencies, universities, research organizations and NGOs involved in the water resources sector took part in the consultation.
A workshop on Water Integrity took place from 20-22 May 2013 at Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa. The workshop discussed the theme “Strengthening Civil Society and Media’s Role in Promoting Integrity and Accountability in the Water Sector”. The course was part of a larger capacity building programme on integrity and accountability in the water sector developed by the UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI, Cap-Net, WaterNet and the Water Integrity Network (WIN) in order to assist in building institutional capacity among key stakeholders. Previous workshops have targeted water managers, and other water decision-makers as primary target groups.
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.
To implement policy change is a process that takes time. During this time, it is possible that the people involved change, resulting in a loss of knowledge. In Malawi, action was taken to combat institutional memory loss by involving as many high-level decision-makers as possible and by organising awareness raising workshops. This demonstrates that it is possible to avoid the loss of knowledge when key decision and policy-makers change.
The Zimbabwe Water Partnership (ZWP) was formed in May 2000. The Partnership is operating under the vision promoting a “Water Secure Zimbabwe through application of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Principles”, and its’ mission is to support sustainable development and management of water resources at all levels in the country.
The Inception Meeting of the Preparation Phase of the GEF Project “Enabling Transboundary Cooperation and Integrated Water Resources Management in the Extended Drin River Basin” was organized on the 27th and 28th May 2013 in Tirana, Albania, back to back with the First Meeting of the Parties to Drin Memorandum of Understanding .
The Meuse and the Scheldt river basins are subjected to pollution and seasonal water shortages, as well as political clash of interests regarding maritime access. Action was taken to solve these issues by the Belgian government. However, although an agreement was eventually made, political issues made the process complex. From this case, it is apparent that a cross-sectoral approach that looks beyond the water sector is often instrumental in developing attractive package deals.
The Lake Atitlán basin experiences serious problems of water pollution, soil erosion and forest and biodiversity losses. Action was taken to establish the Authority for the Sustainable Management of the Atitlán Basin. However, barriers such as lack of public participation, institutional coordination and investment funds have only ensured limited success. The key lesson learnt is that the main barriers to an integrated management of water resources in the basin are strongly interlinked.
Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), the national supplier of water and sanitation services in Guyana
and long-standing partner of Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) decided to focus its participation at the 2011 International Building Expo on educating thousands of Guyanese about the benefits of rainwater harvesting as a means of water conservation.