With a surface area of 27,834 square km², Burundi is located between the 29° and 30°25 eastern meridians and between the 2°20 and 4°25 southern parallels. Burundi’s population is estimated at 8 million inhabitants.
The Chisinau city action plan, formally adopted in December 2010, involved multi-faceted consultations between urban planners, water authorities, transport agencies, monitoring institutes, universities, and other important stakeholders, all with their own interests and technical vocabularies. As a neutral facilitator, GWP Moldova helped this diverse set of stakeholders realize that good water management is important for all.
In a breakthrough for water, the 7th African Development Forum held in Addis Ababa in October put water on the infrastructure agenda alongside energy, transport and communications. This marked a turning point in overcoming resistance to large water projects stemming from negative perceptions of social and environmental impacts.
GWP West Africa played a key role in a series of meetings that agreed on a training module for water science for higher degrees – bachelors, masters and doctorates – throughout Francophone Africa.
GWP Chair Dr. Letitia A Obeng participated in the General Assembly of the International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO) in Dakar, from 20 to 22 January 2010. The theme of the General Assembly was “the adaptation to consequences of climate change in basins: tools for action”. The assembly gathered together around 250 participants from all continents.
Abundant freshwater resources caracterise Cameroon, yet the country faces severe water challenges as a result of management, legal and institutional deficiencies. Due to the fragmented water sector, development in Cameroon goes slowly. To increase the sustainability of water resources management, Cameroon has embarked on a process towards developing integrated water resources management plans.
GWP Cameroon has cooperated with the Kumbo Urban Council and the locally managed Kumbo Water Authority to improve the management of water supply in Kumbo, Cameroon where the ownership of the water supply system has resulted in a more than thirty year long conflict.
Dr Letitia A Obeng, GWP Chair speech at the 5th High Level Session of Ministers with responsibility for water was co-convened by GWP-Caribbean and the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association's (CWWA's) in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands on 5-6 October 2009.
At a regional workshop on financing the water sector in Central Africa, participants expressed the urgent need for investments in basin, national and regional organizations. In addition, participants validated the proposed regional strategy for financing the water sector and its mechanism as proposed by GWP Central Africa (GWP-CAf). One participant called the strategy “relevant, consistent and forward looking.”
A Global Soil Partnership was launched at the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on 7 September 2011. It will help to implement the provisions of the World Soil Charter, adopted in 1982, and to raise awareness and motivate action by decision-makers on the importance of soils for food security and climate change adaptation and mitigation. As such it will complement the work of the Global Water Partnership.