Costa Rica is making progress in expanding access to water supply and sanitation, but the sector faces challenges when it comes to sanitation connections, poor service quality, and low cost recovery.
With China becoming one of the largest emitters of CO2 emissions, saving water and controlling pollution are key climate change adaptation strategies in the National 12th Five-year (2011-2015) Plan.
In September, the Coca Cola Foundation approved funding for the GWP Mediterranean project on ‘Rainwater Harvesting in the Cyclades Islands’. The project aims to contribute to local water security through a pilot installation of more than 10 rainwater harvesting systems in public buildings, training of technicians, and educational activities for local schools.
The approval of the IWRM Strategic Action Plan for the Congo Basin by the International Commission for the Congo-Oubangui-Sangha basin (CICOS) in late 2010 paves the way for realising the vast potential of the catchment.
GWP Romania participated at the Bucharest Business Forum at the World Trade Center, Bucharest, Romania on 18-19 October 2010. The goal was to offer a discussion platform for all stakeholders interested in developing flagship projects within the EU Strategy for Danube Region through Strategic Partnerships at European macro regional level.
Global Water Partnership South Asia (GWP SAS) has partners in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
GWP China Yellow River, together with the Yellow River Research Institute, provided technical experts and speakers and organised the workshop, Efficient Use of Water Resources and Ecological Compensation, in September 2010 in Zhengzhou, Henan.
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.
The challenges China is facing with the rapid growth of urban centres, and the corresponding demands on limited water and related resources, is immense. This is true on the Loess Plateau which covers an area of some 640,000 km² in the upper and middle of China's Yellow River. A workshop on “Efficient Use of Water Resources and Ecological Compensation” was co-organized by GWP China-Yellow River and the Yellow River Research Institute on 27-28 September 2010, in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.